Tell HN: OpenAI's services are not available in 45 countries

9 points by kiltucista a year ago

I was surprised to see ChatGPT unavailable in my country (Algeria) but available in neighboring countries (Morocco and Tunisia), so I created a script to test all countries.

Map: https://i.imgur.com/2fF3Xlh.png

Countries list: "Afghanistan", "Albania", "Algeria", "Andorra", "Angola", "Azerbaijan", "Bahrain", "Belarus", "Burundi", "Cambodia", "Cameroon", "Central African Republic", "Chad", "China", "Congo, Democratic Republic", "Cuba", "Egypt", "Equatorial Guinea", "Eritrea", "Ethiopia", "French Southern Territories", "Heard Island & Mcdonald Islands", "Hong Kong", "Iran, Islamic Republic Of", "Lao People's Democratic Republic", "Libyan Arab Jamahiriya", "Macao", "Mauritius", "North Korea", "Paraguay", "Russian Federation", "Saudi Arabia", "Somalia", "South Sudan", "Sudan", "Swaziland", "Syrian Arab Republic", "Tajikistan", "Turkmenistan", "Ukraine", "Uzbekistan", "Venezuela", "Viet Nam", "Yemen", "Zimbabwe"

User script: https://pastebin.com/c92Y01gL

padiazg a year ago

I live in Paraguay, and don't get why we are banned. We are a democracy. I know people from those banned countries that live in allowed countries are using the chat every day, so what was the point of ban them?

williamwong a year ago

It definitely violates impartiality and is a typical case of discrimination.

houssamADJ a year ago

are these countries banned or are just the servers aren't available in them? somebody explain !

  • tafath a year ago

    You need a phone number to signup, and phone numbers from these countries are explicitly not allowed

salvorhardin789 a year ago

What is this? What did us do wrong that make us not available to such innovation?

  • tafath a year ago

    I think the map correlates with authoritarian regimes maps

7ganam a year ago

Anyone knows why those countries? Some of them makes sense but others not at all.

numaraku a year ago

Really wanted to be available in algeria. hadja ma teslah fel blad hadi

  • houssamADJ a year ago

    but there are some Algerians that have used it when it was first launched !! ma ykonch za3ma problem "andhom f el servers ?

    • Senzu a year ago

      They use VPN ig

Neveen a year ago

It's shame really. Lots of untapped potential in some of these places.

hhhaa2230 a year ago

guys how do I use the AI, because I'm in one of the unavailable countries and cannot access it. thanks

sam1122 a year ago

Hey tell me to do something crazy