GitLab stops hiring in Russia and China for positions related to user data. The company is afraid of the authorities

GitLab has updated its recruiting policy. Starting October 15, 2019, the startup will not hire people from Russia and China for positions related to customer data access. This applies to work in the support team, positions with admin access, and security-positions.

How the block works

The rule concerns a location and residing in the country, but not an origin. GitLab has no offices, so developers can work from home or anywhere else in the world.

Those employees who want to move to Russia or China will not be able to retain a position related to personal data access.

The change does not affect any of the current GitLab employees. The company will not fire anyone and will continue to hire people in these countries whose work will not be related to personal data.

“The main concern of Gitlab is the possible pressure from the authorities of Russia and China.”

This was reported in a post by Eric Johnson, vice president of GitLab Engineering. The policy update was noticed by Ukrainian Dmytro Veselov.

Does it concern Ukraine

Initially, Johnson’s text mentioned blocking by country of residence for Ukraine as well. However, not because of government pressure, but the frequency of cyberattacks.

As other discussion threads show, the situation was also discussed by Dmitriy Zaporozhets, the Ukrainian co-founder of GitLab. He asked for evidence that Ukraine is in the top 5 countries for cybercrime sources.

In the edited version of the post about blocking, Ukraine is no longer mentioned. GitLab employees can visit the country and work from Ukraine without fear of losing access or jobs.