A senior State Department official and a senior Treasury Department official announced the U.S. Department of the Treasury acted to advance the free flow of information for the Iranian people.
The upgrade in policy comes as 80 million Iranians have been cut off from the internet by their government following protests regarding the death of Mahsa Amini, according to a Sept. 23 special briefing. The release of General License D-2 aims to keep the free flow of information available to Iranians.
“So as a result of the coordination over the course of that last year, year and a half, today the Department of Treasury has issued General License D-2, updating its guidance to expand the range of internet services available to Iranians,” the State Department official said in the briefing “The updated general license dramatically increases support for internet freedom in Iran by bringing U.S. sanctions guidance into line with changes in modern technology."
According to the briefing, the guidance authorizes technology companies to offer more options for private, outside platforms and services for the Iranian people, which will help them counter the Iranian government's censorship efforts.
“The Iranian government has cut off access to the Internet for most of its 80 million citizens to prevent them – and the world – from watching its violent crackdown on peaceful protestors,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a Sept. 23 DOS news release. “It's clear that the Iranian government is afraid of its own people. Mahsa Amini is senselessly, tragically dead, and now the government is violently suppressing peaceful protesters rightly angry about her loss.”
D-2 differs from D-1 in that it removes the limitation which previously authorized access only to services connected to “personal communication,” according to a Sept. 23 news release by the Department of the Treasury. This was due to feedback from tech companies who found the wording to be ambiguous.
The Treasury Department reported a new category has been added to include social media platforms, collaboration platforms, video conferencing, cloud-based services that support the aforementioned and tools that incorporate communication functions such as online maps, e-gaming, e-learning platforms, automated translation, web maps and user authentication services, according to the release.
The senior Treasury Department official explained the benefits of the updates, particularly in regard to cloud-based technology. VPN services and other anti-surveillance tools are delivered via cloud. This means these services will now be available to Iranians, the official reported during the special briefing.
When asked how soon the new guidance would affect Iran — whether it was a benefit for the short-term or more long-term — the Treasury Department official said it was “hard to speak for private sector companies on how quickly they can pivot to provide additional services,” according to the special briefing. The official deferred the question to the companies that would be utilizing GL D-2.
