[lxgr]

> The absolutely first thing I do at every company and on every project is ask if I can block russia, china and belarussian IP space

Sorry for the language, but fuck that attitude. I don't live in any of these countries, but I used to live in a large European one that still regularly gets blocked by US sites for no fathomable reason.

Maybe you should try using the internet from a VPN location outside the US to see how fun that is as a paying customer of the sites that are blocking you for your crime by association (if temporary physical presence can even be called that).

One time I couldn't even unsubscribe from a VOD streaming service that I had been subscribed to while on an assignment in the US once I was back in Europe because their entire website was just a big geoblocked mess, including account/subscription management. Of course they were still happy to take my money! Less egregious but still infuriating: OMNY, New York's open-loop transit payment system, just outright blocks me when trying to access my account from Europe. Have the people ever considered the scenario that a visitor might use their service and later need the receipts for e.g. an expense report? Sure enough, London's TfL does the same thing for the US.

I can't wait for the day that the decision makers responsible for this insanity get stuck on a business or holiday trip like that and realize how annoying this is – or even better, realize that things like VPNs and botnets exist and can obscure the source of any Internet traffic...