GitHub blocks developers in Iran, Syria, North Korea, Cuba, and Crimea

[The impact of US trade restrictions is trickling down to GitHub.](The software development hosting company is banning users in Iran, Syria, and Crimea from accessing parts of its service because of US trade restrictions on these countries. US sanctions also apply to Cuba and North Korea, so GitHub’s restrictions apply to them as well. The Microsoft-owned firm is enforcing “new restrictions to prevent users in sanctioned countries from accessing private repositories and GitHub Marketplace, as well as maintaining private paid organization accounts,” TechCrunch reports. The company’s CEO tweeted over the weekend that GitHub has “gone to great lengths to do no more than what is required by the law.” - How it will work: The restriction will be based on a user’s IP address and payment history, rather than verifying a nationality and ethnicity. [[Rita Liao and Manish Singh / TechCrunch](] [TikTok is taking a stab at hardware.](ByteDance, the parent company of the social video app TikTok, says it plans to launch a smartphone. The phone has been in development for about seven months and is part of a collaboration with the Chinese device maker Smartisan Technology. CNBC reports that “ByteDance has risen to become a leading player in tech, rivaling the likes of Baidu and Tencent in influence.” - There’s more: [TikTok’s global expansion was spurred on earlier this month when it purchased the music AI startup Jukedeck]( for an undisclosed amount. [[CNBC](] [Tech’s cheap dates: you and me.](As Congress, consumers, and US regulatory agencies question whether tech companies like Apple, Amazon, Google, and Facebook need antitrust regulation, Recode’s Kara Swisher writes that the answer is obvious. It’s been almost a decade since some of the most successful companies came along, and they’ve been gobbling up their competition for years. As Swisher writes, “the way that the tech giants have been responsive to consumer demands has lulled us all into a state of continuous partial satisfaction.” And in fact, “we consumers are the gifts that keep on giving, as continuing generators of data that is monetizable and ever more revealing to the companies that collect that information.” But hey, look what we get: Prime, Nest, Libra! - Encouraging more competition is one way to try to fix it: At least, [that’s the direction the government seems to be going](. Because, as Swisher says, “the idea of showing consumer harm — which has been the traditional standard for bringing an antitrust action — feels impossible to prove here.” [[Kara Swisher / The New York Times](] [Scammers are using American service members’ identities to cheat people on Facebook.](The New York Times reports that some members of the US military have discovered that their names and pictures are being used to make fake profiles to carry out “love scams” that cheat “vulnerable and lonely women out of their money.” The Times points out “for digital criminals, Facebook has become a one-stop shop” with plenty of photos and plenty of ways to connect with single women and widows. - These schemes stand out in their audacity: Scams and other fraud have proliferated on Facebook for years ([and recently around its new libra cryptocurrency]() but taking on both a global tech giant and the US military is bold. The Times reports that Facebook “works with the authorities to prosecute scammers. Billions of fake Facebook accounts [have been blocked](over the past year, the company said, though its estimate for the number of active fakes has [steadily risen to about 120 million](.” [[Jack Nicas / The New York Times](] [Insert alt text here] 🎧 [Alexa, what's Amazon doing inside my home?]( Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant can tell you the weather, operate home appliances, and video chat family members. Alexa aims to be the centerpiece of the “smart home” connected to the internet. It can lull us with the convenience, but what’s the downside to letting Alexa run your entire home? And why is Amazon making a microwave oven powered by Alexa? [Listen to the latest episode of Land of the Giants now](. [Insert alt text here] [Lil Nas X visits Twitter, demands an edit button.]( [Twitter]( [Facebook]( [Instagram]( This email was sent to {EMAIL}. Manage your [email preferences]( to receive fewer emails, or [unsubscribe]( to stop receiving all emails from Vox. Vox Media, 1201 Connecticut Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20036. Copyright © 2016. All rights reserved.