x/website: Request to Unblock Go Services (including pkg.go.dev and others) for Syrian Developers

[firasuke]

What is the URL of the page with the issue?

• https://pkg.go.dev/

What is your user agent?

• Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/130.0.0.0 Safari/537.36

Screenshot

What did you do?

• I simply attempted to visit the packages subdomain (pkg.go.dev) and received the above message.

What did you expect to see?

• I expected to see a working packages registry website with information on the various Go packages and modules.

What did you see instead?

• I received the 403 message above.

Additional Information

I'd like to respectfully request a review and update of the policies that currently restrict access to Go's services (websites, packages, modules, tools, repositories, documentation and the entire Go ecosystem) for developers located in Syria. This request comes in light of recent and significant developments in U.S. sanctions policy, specifically the issuance of Syria General License (GL) 25 by the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on May 23, 2025:

• https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/sb0148
• https://ofac.treasury.gov/recent-actions/20250523_33
• https://ofac.treasury.gov/sanctions-programs-and-country-information/syria-sanctions
• https://ofac.treasury.gov/media/934306/download?inline
• https://ofac.treasury.gov/media/934311/download?inline
• https://www.state.gov/releases/office-of-the-spokesperson/2025/06/termination-of-syria-sanctions/

I understand that compliance and legal reviews are complex, but these, now lifted, sanctions have unfortunately resulted in Syrian developers being effectively cut off from the global software development community.

Thank you for your time and consideration of this important matter.

[seankhliao]

I believe this is Google wide policy, not project specific.

[firasuke]

I believe this is Google wide policy, not project specific.

If it were truly a blanket 'Google wide policy', then can you explain why go.dev works including the tour and the playground but not pkg.go.dev? Aren't the former two also services that are served from the same go.dev domain which if I understood correctly is subject to Google's ToS?

I just can't seem to comprehend the discrepancy between go.dev and pkg.go.dev which are both under the same stated ToS? And why is a new OFAC General License, specifically designed to address these restrictions, being so readily dismissed?

Closing an issue like this, which points to an important change in U.S. law, before any internal review has even begun, speaks volumes imho.