U.S. Sanctions Iran’s New Secretary Of Supreme Council Of Cyberspace, More Must be Done

(New York, N.Y.) — Today, the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned the new secretary of Iran’s Supreme Council of Cyberspace, as United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) recommended in its “Iran Human Rights Abusers Who Should Be Sanctioned Now” list. The secretary, Seyyed Mohammad Amin Aghamiri, is responsible for Iran’s cyberspace policy and website blocking, a practice that has become commonplace in Iran as part of the regime’s censorship tactics in recent years.

To read UANI’s report What the US Should Do Now to Hold Iran Accountable, please click here. 

Iran’s Supreme Council of Cyberspace was created in 2012 by Iran’s supreme leader and has helped disrupt the free flow of information, including by restricting access to websites such as those for international news sources, human rights groups, and social media sites. 

Today’s step is important for holding the Iranian regime accountable but there remains much more to do. The U.S. should support the Iranian people’s desire for the end of the regime and its replacement by a democratic government. Further, the U.S. should work to hinder the regime’s efforts to suppress the voices of Iranian activists through tactics like shadow banning; continue harmonizing human rights sanctions with those of its allies; and encourage those allies to isolate Tehran diplomatically by reducing the regime’s diplomatic presence in their countries, recalling ambassadors, suspending official visits, and mounting campaigns to strip the Islamic Republic of its membership in international organizations.  

To read UANI’s report Iran’s War on Protesters: Death, Detention, and Darkness, please click here. 

To read UANI’s report The Iranian Cyber Threat, please click here. 

To read UANI’s resource Iran Human Rights Abusers Who Should Be Sanctioned Now, please click here.

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