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Biden sanctions Iran tech firm for censorship while remaining silent on censoring US citizens
[JustTheNews] The Treasury Department recently imposed sanctions on an Iran-based technology firm for helping Iranian leaders impose internet censorship on anti-government protests, but President Joe Biden is remaining silent on the U.S. government's censorship of its own citizens. The technology firm Aravan Cloud and its co-founders Pouya Pirhosseinloo and Farhad Fatemi, as well as the firm's United Arab Emirates-based affiliate, were all sanctioned "for their roles in facilitating the Iranian regime’s censorship of the Internet in Iran," the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control said Friday. "The United States is committed to holding accountable those who seek to undermine freedom of expression and suppress dissent, and to call out regimes who deny their citizens this right," Treasury Under Secretary Brian Nelson said. Secretary of State Antony Blinken also praised the sanctions, which he said are part of a "multi-pronged strategy to support and preserve the free flow of information to the Iranian people in the face of the Iranian regime’s unprecedented campaign of Internet disruptions and censorship." While the Biden administration is concerned about protecting freedom of speech abroad and even sanctioning companies that colluded with foreign governments in censorship, Republican lawmakers have uncovered evidence administration worked with social media platforms to censor the speech of U.S. citizens. Posted by: Skidmark 2023-06-05 |
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