US Sanctions are enabling Iran to blackout the Internet
U.S. sanctions are playing a major role in Iran being able to shut down Internet access. Until the US pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal, Iran’s Internet was hosted by a combination of domestic and international providers, but after sanctions were reimposed only domestic providers were available. This enabled the Iranian government to shut off the Internet — a violation of the right to freedom of expression—inside the country from November 17 through 24, 2019.
In 2017, Iran shut down the Internet in response to protests inside the country but because the country was so dependent on international Internet infrastructure, they could only afford to close the internet for 30 minutes. Fast-forward to 2019 and renewed sanctions, and Iran was able to blackout 93% of the Internet for a week.
Trump administration’s response to Iran’s Internet shut down has been more sanctions. This means that the next time Iran wants to blackout the Internet, they will have an even easier time doing so.
Fill out the form below to email your representatives in Congress and tell them that all technology to Iran must be lifted.
Please also take the social media actions on the next page to tell tech companies Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, and Microsoft to reactivate domain fronting — disabled by Amazon and Google in April 2018 — so that Iranians can resume using international Internet providers.
US Sanctions are enabling Iran to blackout the Internet
U.S. sanctions are playing a major role in Iran being able to shut down Internet access. Until the US pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal, Iran’s Internet was hosted by a combination of domestic and international providers, but after sanctions were reimposed only domestic providers were available. This enabled the Iranian government to shut off the Internet — a violation of the right to freedom of expression—inside the country from November 17 through 24, 2019.
In 2017, Iran shut down the Internet in response to protests inside the country but because the country was so dependent on international Internet infrastructure, they could only afford to close the internet for 30 minutes. Fast-forward to 2019 and renewed sanctions, and Iran was able to blackout 93% of the Internet for a week.
Trump administration’s response to Iran’s Internet shut down has been more sanctions. This means that the next time Iran wants to blackout the Internet, they will have an even easier time doing so.
Fill out the form below to email your representatives in Congress and tell them that all technology to Iran must be lifted.
Please also take the social media actions on the next page to tell tech companies Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, and Microsoft to reactivate domain fronting — disabled by Amazon and Google in April 2018 — so that Iranians can resume using international Internet providers.