Today, the United States is sanctioning the Iranian official who helped shut down the internet for the Iranian people. The Department of Treasury has designated Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi, Iran’s Minister of Information and Communications Technology, who is supposed to be responsible for ensuring internet connectivity inside Iran. The United States stands with the people of Iran in their struggle against an oppressive regime that silences them while arresting and murdering protestors.

While Iranian regime leaders maintain access to the internet and social media accounts for themselves and their cronies, they deprive their people of these basic tools of expression and communication. This hypocrisy simultaneously supports a corrupt religious mafia and oppresses the Iranian people. No country or company should enable the regime’s censorship or human rights abuses.

The United States will always support access to information, freedoms of expression and peaceful assembly, and will continue to promote accountability for those who unduly restrict these freedoms. While the Iranian regime will seek to protect the abusers of the Iranian people and hide their horrific actions from memory, the United States will expose these human rights abusers and record their shameful acts for history.