Adobe To Ban Users From Venezuela Due to U.S. Executive Order

Adobe published today a support document saying that the company is deactivating all accounts in Venezuela starting October 28 due to U.S. Government's Executive Order 13884 issued on August 5, 2019.

BleepingComputer has reached out to Adobe for comment but had not heard back at the time of this publication. This article will be updated when a response is received.

Besides the order having been issued back in August and Adobe acting upon it in October, there's also the issue of the Executive Order 13884 being about "Blocking Property of the Government of Venezuela" and not targeting all the citizens of Venezuela.

According to the Executive Order, "the term 'Government of Venezuela' includes the state and Government of Venezuela, any political subdivision, agency, or instrumentality thereof, including the Central Bank of Venezuela and Petroleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PdVSA), any person owned or controlled, directly or indirectly, by the foregoing, and any person who has acted or purported to act directly or indirectly for or on behalf of, any of the foregoing, including as a member of the Maduro regime."

"The U.S. Government issued Executive Order 13884, the practical effect of which is to prohibit almost all transactions and services between U.S. companies, entities, and individuals in Venezuela. To remain compliant with this order, Adobe is deactivating all accounts in Venezuela," says Adobe.

"Executive Order 13884 was issued with no expiration date – the decision to rescind it rests solely with the U.S. Government. We will continue to monitor developments closely and will make every effort to restore services to Venezuela as soon as it is legally permissible to do so."

Adobe will also not issue any refunds after canceling its Venezuelan customers' subscriptions seeing that "Executive order 13884, orders the cessation of all activity with the entities including no sales, service, support, refunds, credits, etc."

The company will no longer provide access to any of its services and software to Venezuelan citizens, and it will also prohibit them from using its free products, as well as block them from making any future purchases due to the US sanctions imposed in early August.

"We apologize for the inconvenience," adds Adobe in the support document appropriately named "Adobe compliance with U.S. Executive Order | Venezuela."

Venezuelan customers who will have their accounts deactivated this month have until October 28, 2019, to download any content they might have saved on the platform and stored within their Adobe accounts. 

Based on each customer's app or subscription plans, they can download files from the following cloud locations:

Users have also started receiving email notifications regarding Adobe's move to ban the accounts of all its Venezuelan users, as a large number of reports are saying on Twitter.

According to their letter, users will no longer be able to access their accounts, the Adobe.com online platform, or the company's software or services.

Microsoft-owned GitHub also banned users from Crimea, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, and Syria following previously imposed U.S. economical sanctions.

GitHub also provides an organizational account appeals request form and an individual account appeals request form for users and orgs who have been flagged in error and aren't actually under a U.S.-sanctioned jurisdiction or otherwise restricted by U.S. economic sanctions.