Newsman: The United States announced fresh new sanctions on Thursday against Iranian officials in punishment “for the continued violence against peaceful protesters and the shutdown of Iran’s Internet access.”
“We condemn the Iranian government’s crackdown on its people’s rights to freedom of expression and of peaceful assembly, including by shutting down access to the internet. We will use our sanctions as long as Iran continues to disregard its people’s rights,” State Department spokesperson Ned Price tweeted.
The State Department says it is appalled by Iran’s crackdown on protesters.
President Biden says he stands with the women of Iran and those who have been protesting following Amisi’s death. His administration has imposed sanctions on the morality police.
Meanwhile, the Treasury Department issued a license to exempt tech companies from some sanctions so they can try to increase web access for Iranians.
Thursday’s sanctions announcement follows days of growing pressure from activists for the U.S. to support the Iran protests, now in their third week, following the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman in the custody of the country’s so-called morality police.
“It is a welcome move, but it is coming years after we have been repeating this call,” says Iranian American human rights lawyer Gissou Nia, director of the Strategic Litigation Project at the Atlantic Council.
She has long argued that U.S. sanctions made it hard for Iranians to freely use the internet, forcing many to communicate via Iranian government services – which the government frequently blocks and possibly scans to find dissenters.
Nia also worries that Iranians may not be able to pay for internet subscriptions because they don’t have credit cards that work in the international banking system. She’s urging the U.S. government to work with big tech companies to provide free services.
