Employees Call On Microsoft To Protect GitHub From China Censors (pcmag.com) 90
The GitHub repository at "996.ICU" in China has been calling out tech companies in the country that pressure their employees to work from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., six days per week. "Since it went up last month, the page has been starred over 229,000 times, making it one of the most popular GitHub repositories on the site," reports PC Magazine. "But now a group of Microsoft employees are worried the Chinese government will force their employer to take the page down. So in response, they've been circulating an internal letter, urging Microsoft to stand up to any potential pressure to censor the GitHub page." From the report: "We encourage Microsoft and GitHub, companies which firmly believe in a healthy work-life balance, to keep the 996.ICU GitHub repository uncensored and available to everyone," reads the letter, which was shared with PCMag and started circulating internally on Sunday.
The GitHub repository now hosts a list of over 140 Chinese companies that allegedly demand their employees work 60 hours a week. Many foreign media outlets have also reported on the protest page. But reportedly, some attempts have been made to censor mention of the 996.ICU repository within China. Domestic browsers from Tencent, Qihoo 360, and Xiaomi recently prevented users from visiting the GitHub page, according to Abacus. It's why a group of Microsoft employees based largely in the U.S. decided to circulate a protest letter calling on Redmond to protect the GitHub page from censorship. Microsoft hasn't commented, but the company's two other web properties, Bing and LinkedIn, "have been forced to comply with the country's strict censorship demands," the report notes.
The GitHub repository now hosts a list of over 140 Chinese companies that allegedly demand their employees work 60 hours a week. Many foreign media outlets have also reported on the protest page. But reportedly, some attempts have been made to censor mention of the 996.ICU repository within China. Domestic browsers from Tencent, Qihoo 360, and Xiaomi recently prevented users from visiting the GitHub page, according to Abacus. It's why a group of Microsoft employees based largely in the U.S. decided to circulate a protest letter calling on Redmond to protect the GitHub page from censorship. Microsoft hasn't commented, but the company's two other web properties, Bing and LinkedIn, "have been forced to comply with the country's strict censorship demands," the report notes.
Why Comply (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I mean, they make billions in China, and the Chinese government has a non-spyware version of Windows 10 (called the Chinese Government Edition), so you know, it's a reasonable concern.
Re: (Score:2, Troll)
Chinese who use a VPN go to jail, disappear, or are unable to travel.
Do you even internet?
Re:LOl Thanks (Score:2)
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the Chinese will just use a VPN to access whatever they want
They can tell when people are using a VPN, even if they cannot read the traffic, and they block connections well known VPN service endpoints. Moreover, for those who persist through these barriers and use VPNs anyway, they can lower your "social credit" score which denies you access to better jobs, decent housing, foreign travel and even travel within China, among other penalties. Why comply you ask? Because they have ways of making you care and they don't care what foreigners think about their methods. Don
Re: The rise of China (Score:1)
All empires are built at the expense of exploited masses.
Re: The rise of China (Score:2)
Chinese people do work hard. But that's not the only factor.
The rise of China was also fueled by the traitorous economic policy of the American oligarchy. Our despicable masters literally packed up our manufacturing equipment and shipped it to China. The stripped factories were then either torn down or left standing as grim ruins. Our once productive and prosperous cities are now rotting with poverty and despair.
As our oligarchs were selling out their country and their countrymen for private profit, our "el
yet, you reap cheap electronic (Score:2)
^- yet, the above post was probably written on a device that was purchased at an affordable price, exactly because it was made in China.
You complain about manufacturing in the western world haven been outsourced into China, but you don't complain that you bought your smartphone 200 USD from aliexpress/amazon/etc. instead of 12'000 USD it would have cost if it was manufactured by US workers.
(and keep your hopes low: if manufacturing returns to the west instead of getting outsourced from China to India/Africa
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So there won't be any American labor if we bring manufacturing back here but that non-existent labor will cost $1000 anyway?
I don't think those talking points are supposed to be used together. You might better call the mothership and see if they can send some extra instructional videos along with your next order of cool aid.
Not quite. (Score:2)
So there won't be any American labor if we bring manufacturing back here but that non-existent labor will cost $1000 anyway?
Not quite. I'm speaking about different products/use cases/etc.
Most of the companies won't bring their manufacturing back to the western world yet, because the price will sky rocket (think Apple and iPhones).
The few companies that actually DO bring back already, are usually those who have automated production to the max, so they don't need any cheap labor, and thus China's abysmal work condition aren't relevant to the final price of the product.
These are manufacturing plants that won't be hiring en masse.
I'
Isn't there enough politics in coding already? (Score:1)
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> Wikipedia
LOL
And watch it get deleted faster then you can say "No Original Research" bullshit.
Archive of the Anti 996 License consultation (Score:2)
This repository does host source code. Contracts, software licenses, and codes of conduct are legal code, as explained in Lawrence Lessig's Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace [wikipedia.org]. A contract as a text file is written in "the preferred form of a work for making modifications to it," which makes it source code as defined in versions 2 and 3 of the GNU GPL.
In particular, this repository hosts the Anti 996 License [github.com], a variant of the MIT License that further explicitly prohibits use by entities violating labor law. I
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Lawrence Lessig is not the US Congress or Supreme Court. While I respect his reasoning, it is is not legally binding, especially ot the mainland Chinese government, which has its own restrictions on political speech. Whether or not the 996 repository is copyrighted, I think there is a good case for treating it as political speech, which the Chinese government _does_ censor quite heavily internally and at the infamous "Great Firewall of China".
It is an interesting archive, politically. That does not protect
US Code and Code of Federal Regulations (Score:2)
Contracts, software licenses, and codes of conduct are legal code, as explained in Lawrence Lessig's Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace
Lawrence Lessig is not the US Congress or Supreme Court.
The US Congress, on the other hand, is the US Congress. It uses the names "United States Code" for its own statutes and "Code of Federal Regulations" for those enacted by agencies to which it has delegated legislative authority in some field. (The several states use similar names for their statutes, such as "Indiana Code" and "Ohio Revised Code".) Additionally, through the copyright statute, the Congress has delegated regulation of use of works of authorship to their respective authors, and I see no reason
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> I see no reason why this is any less "Code" than the CFR.
This is the difficulty. What the courts and the Congress and the regulatory agencies decide to enact does not necessarily match your, or Lawrence Lessig's interpretation. Lauwrence Lessig also believes that software is mathematics and therefore impossible to patent in his other writing. Because Lawrence also argues so extensively elsewhere that software patents are all invalid, it calls into question the reliability of his legal opinions on softw
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Please forget I mentioned Dr. L at all for the following comment:
What the courts and the Congress and the regulatory agencies decide to enact does not necessarily match your [...] interpretation.
In what way is the reasoning of the following sentence flawed? "Through the copyright statute, the Congress has enshrined authors as regulatory agencies over their own respective works."
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So a code of conduct allows for a flag of Taiwan, the real China.
A game can have reference to the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests.
Software code can support a camera company by name after they showed an image of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests.
Comments can mention a cartoon bear.
Quotes from the book 1984 can be used in comments?
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Calling Taiwan the real China is like calling the UK the real USA.
Too soon (Score:2)
So a code of conduct allows for a flag of Taiwan, the real China.
Is there serious objection on PRC's part to displaying that as "Flag of proposed Taiwan SAR" in Chairman Deng's framework of "one China, many systems" (Lat. e pluribus unum)?
Comments can mention a cartoon bear.
Too soon. Maybe in 2024 (USA) or 2026 (EU) that'll be OK, with pictures starting in 2047.
Quotes from the book 1984 can be used in comments?
Too soon. Maybe in 2021 (EU) or 2045 (USA) that'll be OK.
Whatabout (Score:1, Insightful)
Microsoft caving to the US Government against their employees demands? https://www.wired.com/story/microsoft-ceo-defends-army-contract-augmented-reality/
"We made a principled decision that we're not going to withhold technology from institutions that we have elected in democracies to protect the freedoms we enjoy" - Nadella told CNN Business at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
Literally, Nadella by the same logic would support ANY war crimes the US commits as long as he enjoys freedom in said democracy. H
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Wonder how long you'd enjoy those freedoms if you completely denied the US Military and government any kind of services or products.
You're probably one of those guys who rails on cops all day, but then dial 911 faster than a speeding bullet the minute someone's dog so much as passes in front of your house.
Short Sighted (Score:5, Insightful)
Western programmers know from experience that people only really have 5-7 good hours during a typical work day and after that you get higher bug introduction rates in the product. Once an engineer is burnt out they can't just keep working without making mistakes.
The only exception is passion project where you get motivation from the "fun" of the project. But that only gives you another 5-7 hours.
Good code sometimes requires thinking about a problem when you are relaxing and not at work.
“There is no instance of a nation benefitting from prolonged warfare.”
“Even the finest sword plunged into salt water will eventually rust.”
Sun Tzu
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A great deal of work does not require "good hours". It merely requires the presence of tools and even repetitive and mechanical work. That "6-7 hours of good work" is idealized for many lower level technical roles.
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Found the SCRUM master.
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We're talking about software here. If your programmer is doing "repetitive and mechanical work", you've got a shitty programmer. There is no "repetitive and mechanical work" on a computer that I can't turn into an automated script in 30 minutes.
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"And she's buying a stairway to heaven"
-- Jesus
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Maybe they don't care if there are more bugs. Quality has rarely been a Chinese co's strong point, compared to say co's in Japan, Switzerland, and Germany. Perhaps it is possible to generate yet more barely-good-enough code under long hours with practice.
Sorry, the prevailing view is Greed Morality (Score:1)
Sorry, the prevailing view is Greed > Morality
CAPTCHA: cables
Microsoft has options (Score:2)
For M$ it would be a win-win situation. They could toady and get preferential treatment from the Chinese while still keeping a facade of maintaining ethical values in the West.
And it's not like they would be doing anything worse then what they normally do.
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And it's not like they would be doing anything worse then what they normally do.
Either you should post proof of MS is giving active assistance of tracking subversive elements for authoritarian governments or readjust your moral equivalence detector.
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Well Microsoft isn't blocked in China, where as companies that don't share data with the Chinese government are, so... Although it's not direct proof, you have to presume that Microsoft is only allowed to operate in China because it gives the government access to Outlook.com and Bing search queries, at least those made in China.
Actually I can confirm from first hand experience that Bing is censored in China.
uhh... (Score:3, Interesting)
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Travel Logging
Musical Composition
Remixing Recipes
Open Source Font Editing
Data Visualization For Journalists
Writing And Blogging
Legal Documents
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Agree with you there, github is being abused in so many ways.
It's similar to using a spreadsheet as a database or a word document with screenshots pasted into them.
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The protest isn't on Github, only the repo used to gather information.
Is this an actual problem? (Score:2)