Can't github fight back ? Like apple fighting the FBI?

s/github/microsoft/

Microsoft seems rather friendly to governments (e.g. NSAKEY).

Depends how eager Microsoft is to "gain access to the Chinese market".

And how eager they are to be on good terms with the US government, I suppose.

Never very at this point. Basically no one has and it seems like everyone largely has given up

What about Google blocking Android access from Huawei? Have they been forced to make that decision as well? I don't see them complaining, possibly to still have the government available as a possible customer and because they got harmed by the Chinese government's trade policies themselves.

Similarly, Microsoft has the US government as a customer too. They might instruct GitHub leadership to not complain and simply follow the requests by the US government.

> Have they been forced to make that decision as well?

Duh? Huawei was added to the US Department of Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security Entity List. You were imagining that after years of successful open collaboration with Huawei that Google woke up one morning and decided to screw them? You should take some time and re-evaluate what biases have skewed your perspective to such an extent that you were prepared to believe such an unreasonable thing.

Apple actually refused to help the FBI in the iphone case, at least that's the public story. When Trump issued his muslim ban, quite many tech companies issued public statements that condemned it. Google themselves had a letter to their employees. Yet in this instance, they not only comply, they also don't issue any statements of reluctance, at least none that I could find.

Surely, that sentence of mine was exaggerating. They clearly were forced. But they certainly don't care much about it or their reaction would have been different.

One of the main difference between the muslim ban and huawei ban is how sentiment towards muslims in California, and to an extension, the liberal circles, which those tech executives belong to.

Muslims are generally sympathized in those circles, while huawei, and to a lesser extent, China, does not garner any sympathy, so the executives feel no moral obligation to condemn this.

They have been forced.

Unless the executives want to go to jail, they will comply with export restrictions.

If this gets extended to GitHub (potentially likely), then that would be a disaster both for China and for open source.