GitHub’s 2020 Policy Push: A Year in Review
GitHub’s policy team spent 2020 advocating for developers across a range of legal and regulatory fronts, from platform liability and copyright to immigration and global access. The company’s annual recap highlights how it engaged with policymakers, courts, and developer communities worldwide to shape rules that affect how software is built and shared.
Platform Responsibility and Developer Trust
Maintaining a safe and inclusive platform is central to GitHub’s policy work. In 2020, that meant defending legal safe harbors for software collaboration, updating site policies with community input, and publishing its annual transparency report. The reinstatement of youtube-dl after a DMCA takedown was a notable win, underscoring the importance of protecting developers from overreaching copyright claims.
GitHub also weighed in on intermediary liability rules in several jurisdictions. It joined Mozilla and Cloudflare in an open letter on India’s proposed amendments, collaborated with Engine on US legislation, and worked with OpenForum Europe on the EU’s Digital Services Act consultation. The company advocated on multiple US bills addressing copyright liability reform, including the CASE Act and DMCA reform efforts. As EU member states implemented the Copyright Directive, GitHub successfully pushed the Netherlands to place the open source carveout in the binding portion of its national law. It also contributed a developer platform perspective to the Santa Clara Principles on content moderation transparency.
Privacy remained a priority: GitHub removed all non-essential cookies and cookie banners from its platform, and continued to address data protection concerns for transatlantic collaboration following the invalidation of the EU-US Privacy Shield.
Standing Up for Innovation
GitHub’s innovation policy work focused on copyright, patents, and employment rules that impact developers. The Supreme Court case Oracle v. Google, still pending a decision, was closely watched for its implications on copyright protection for APIs. GitHub also submitted comments to the US Patent and Trademark Office on reforming how patents are challenged and assessed, aiming for a system that better supports software innovation.
Open Source Support and Global Reach
Open source policy saw active engagement. GitHub signed onto a call to preserve the Open Technology Fund, which supports security researchers and internet freedom projects funded by the US government. The company updated its Balanced Employee IP Agreement (BEIPA) to give developers clearer rights to contribute to open source projects. It also advised on an OpenForum Europe study examining the impact of open source and planned to expand research efforts in the coming year.
On global collaboration, GitHub announced a new export license that allows it to again serve developers in Iran more fully. It submitted comments on net neutrality regulations in Mexico and participated in international technology policy efforts, including the UN Digital Goods Roundtable and research contributions to the OECD AI Policy Observatory (OECD.AI).
Tech Inclusion and Immigration Advocacy
In the US, GitHub joined multiple legal efforts to fight for immigrants, challenging Department of Homeland Security rules that would affect visa access. The company filed amicus briefs before the Fourth Circuit on the “public charge” rule, the District of Massachusetts on international student visa restrictions during the pandemic, and in multiple courts—including the Northern District of California, Ninth Circuit, and DC Circuit—against restrictions on H-1B and other work visas. GitHub also petitioned DHS to delay implementing rules that would further restrict H-1B visas, leaving room for the incoming Biden Administration and Congress to review. Internally, the company rallied developers and staff with “get out the vote” efforts ahead of the 2020 US elections.
Bridging Developers and Policymakers
To ensure policy is technically informed, GitHub briefed congressional staffers on how its platform serves tens of millions of developers. It also worked to educate developers on comment periods, such as those related to encryption anticircumvention rules at the US Copyright Office that arose from the youtube-dl case. In addition, GitHub joined an amicus brief in NSO v. WhatsApp opposing immunity for cyber surveillance companies that undermine supply chain security.
The policy agenda for 2020 was broad, but GitHub signals that much of this work will continue into 2021 as it presses for developer-friendly policies globally.
