Iranian Tech Users Are Getting Knocked Off the Web by Ambiguous Sanctions

Between targeted killings, retaliatory air strikes, and the shooting of a civilian passenger plane, the last few weeks have been marked by tragedy as tensions rise between the U.S. and Iranian governments. In the wake of these events, Iranians within the country and in the broader diaspora have suffered further from actions by both administrations—including violence and lethal force against protesters and internet shutdowns in Iran, as well as detention, surveillance and device seizure at the U.S. border and exacerbating economic conditions from U.S. sanctions. And to make matters worse, American tech companies are acting on sanctions through an overbroad lens, making it much harder for Iranian people to be able to share their stories with each other and with the broader world.

The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the U.S. Department of the Treasury administers and enforces economic and trade sanctions that target foreign countries, groups, and individuals. Some of these sanctions impact the export to Iran (or use by residents of the country) of certain types of technology, although trying to parse precisely which types are affected appears to have left some companies puzzled.

For example, this week Instagram removed a number of accounts from its service that were affiliated with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)—which is specially designated by OFAC—as well as some accounts praising the IRGC and some condemning the group. The platform initially justified its actions stating:

We review content against our policies and our obligations to US sanctions laws, and specifically those related to the US government’s designation of the IRGC and its leadership as a terrorist organization.

While Instagram is indeed obligated to remove accounts affiliated with the IRGC, the law does not extend to unaffiliated accounts providing commentary on the IRGC—although some experts say that posts supporting a specially designated group could be seen as providing support to the group, thus violating sanctions.

In any case, Instagram may choose to remove accounts praising the IRGC under its own community standards. In the end, Instagram ended up restoring at least one account following media criticism.

A long hard road

EFF has long observed tech companies’ struggle with OFAC sanctions. In 2012, an Apple employee refused to sell a laptop to a customer who was overheard speaking Persian, prompting the State Department to issue a clarifying statement:

[T]here is no U.S. policy or law that prohibits Apple or any other company from selling products in the United States to anybody who’s intending to use the product in the United States, including somebody of Iranian descent or an Iranian citizen or any of that stuff.

In 2013, we spoke up when Airbnb booted an Iranian resident of Switzerland&a