[Ajedi32]

What does it mean to "operate" in a country though? If I operate a service in the US and have no servers in Iran, no employees in Iran, no physical presence in Iran whatsoever, but Iranians are communicating with me over the global public internet, does that mean I have to comply with Iranian law? What about if its France and not Iran? What if these French/Iranian users are not only communicating with me, but also sending me money and/or cryptocurrency in exchange for that communication?

[Ajedi32]

Personally I would contend that none of that counts as "operating" in France or Iran. You're operating entirely in the US, and it would be ridiculous for Iran or France to try to subject you to their laws just because people who live in their country are communicating with you or sending you money. (Though obviously those people are still subject to the laws of their respective countries in what they're allowed to do when interacting with you, just as you are subject to US law in your interactions with them.)

Of course, the fact that something is ridiculous doesn't prevent a sovereign country from trying to do it anyway. Iran can threaten to assassinate you for communicating with their citizens, and France can threaten to jail you if you ever travel to France or extradite you. Both of those threats are unjustified in my opinion and should not be supported or condoned by other countries (particularly not the US), but like I said; they're sovereign countries so we can't do much to stop them if they want to be unreasonable.

[tmottabr]

i disagree completely on this..

If you are serving people in Iran or France then you are operating in those countries regardless of where you or your servers are and so you do have to comply with their laws or risk facing the consequences.

Now, depending on where you are at the reach of the consequences can be negligible and not impact you at all or can be a major problem.

At minimum you will get your service banned in those countries.

[Ajedi32]

In this example everything is happening on U.S. servers, with U.S. employees, on U.S. soil. How is that "operating in" Iran or France?

If someone physically flew over from Iran and talked to me in-person instead of over the internet would you make the same argument? That I'm "operating in Iran" and should be subject to Iranian law because I'm talking to an Iranian citizen? What if it was via a letter? How about a phone call?