Iranian Regime Takes Additional Action to Cut Off Iranians' Access to the Internet

"[I]n the height of the protests in 2022 and 2023, as many as one in three Iranians used U.S.-supported anti-censorship and digital security tools such as VPNs," said State Department Spokesperson Miller.

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The United States deplores the decision by the Iranian regime to ban the use of virtual private network, or VPN, services.

The Iranian Supreme Council of Cyberspace has criminalized the use of VPNs without a legal license, a decision that has reportedly been approved by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Last year the sale and distribution of VPNs were criminalized in Iran. Now their use in general is prohibited. In a country like Iran, where the internet is already severely filtered, VPNs, which encrypt internet connections or spoof the IP address of users and allow access to censored sites with some anonymity, have been crucial lifelines to vital information and ideas.

State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller said the ban on the use of VPNs in Iran “is just the latest reminder of how much the Iranian regime fears its people and what they are capable of when given unfettered access to the internet and unfettered access to information:”

“The internet disruptions that the Iranian regime has put in place in the past have cost the economy billions of dollars. It caused pain to businesses, as well as, of course, choking off information that people need to make decisions about their lives and decisions about their futures.”

Spokesperson Miller said that support for internet freedom in Iran will continue to be a “central pillar” of efforts by the United States to support human rights in the country:

“In the past, in the height of the protests in 2022 and 2023, as many as one in three Iranians used U.S.-supported anti-censorship and digital security tools such as VPNs. There are millions of Iranians that have continued to use those tools to this day … Upholding internet freedom and ensuring Iranian citizens’ access to the internet will continue to be a central pillar of our engagement in that country.”

As Secretary of State Antony Blinken has stated, “We are going to help make sure the Iranian people are not kept isolated and in the dark.”