Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comSign up NEW YORK, Sept 23 (Reuters) – The U.S. Treasury Department issued guidelines on Friday to expand the range of internet services available to Iranians despite U.S. sanctions on the country, amid protests around Iran following the death of a 22-year-old woman in custody. . Officials said the move would help Iranians gain access to tools that can be used to circumvent state surveillance and censorship, but would not completely prevent Tehran from using communications tools to stifle dissent, as it has done by shutting down internet access for most citizens on Wednesday. “As courageous Iranians take to the streets to protest the death of Mahsa Amini, the United States is doubling down on its support for the free flow of information to the Iranian people,” said Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comSign up “With these changes, we are helping the Iranian people to be better equipped to counter the government’s efforts to monitor and censor them.” Adeyemo added that Washington in the coming weeks will continue to issue directives. Public outrage in Iran over Amini’s death last week showed no signs of abating after days of protests in Tehran and other cities, with protesters setting fire to police stations and vehicles earlier Thursday and reports of security forces being attacked. Amini, a Kurdish woman, was arrested by morality police in Tehran for wearing “inappropriate clothing” and fell into a coma while in custody. Authorities said they would investigate the cause of her death. Internet monitoring group NetBlocks announced on Thursday that a new mobile internet outage was recorded in Iran, where access to social media and some content is severely restricted. NetBlocks reported an “almost total” internet blackout in the Kurdish region’s capital on Monday, linking it to the protests. Washington has long provided some Internet-related exemptions to its Iran sanctions, but Friday’s update to the blanket authorization seeks to modernize them, the Treasury Department said. The new license includes social media platforms and video conferencing and expands access to cloud-based services used to provide virtual private networks (VPNs), which give users online anonymity and other anti-surveillance tools, according to an official of the Ministry of Finance, who spoke to reporters about the license on condition of anonymity. The license also still authorizes anti-virus, anti-malware and anti-tracking software, the Treasury Department said, and removes a previous condition that communications be “personal” to make it easier for companies to comply. Asked how the expanded permission would help Iranians if their government shuts down Internet access again, a State Department official who also briefed reporters said Iran’s government would still have “repressive communication tools.” The new authorization makes it “easier for the Iranian people to deal with some of these oppressive tools,” the official said. “It doesn’t mean they don’t exist anymore.” SpaceX CEO Elon Musk responded to a Twitter post by Secretary of State Anthony Blinken about the new license on Friday with the comment “Turning on Starlink,” a reference to the company’s satellite broadband service — already provided to Ukraine for its struggle against the invasion of Russia. read more Musk said Monday his company would provide Starlink to the Iranians and would seek a sanctions waiver to do so. read more The Treasury’s official briefing reporters said: “Our understanding of Starlink is that what they are providing will be of commercial grade and will be material not covered in the general licence; that’s what they should write to Treasury.” A State Department spokesman later said of Friday’s updated permit that it was self-executing and that “anyone who meets the criteria outlined in this general permit may continue to operate without seeking additional permits.” The State Department spokesman added that if SpaceX determined that any activity aimed at Iranians required specific authorization, “OFAC would welcome and prioritize it.” “By the same token, if SpaceX finds that its activity is already authorized and has any questions, OFAC also welcomes that commitment,” the State Department spokesman said. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comSign up Reporting by Dafni Psaledakis in New York and Simon Lewis in Washington. Additional reporting by Kanishka Singh. Edited by William Maclean and Daniel Wallis Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
