Moran legislation would aid cyber-space communications of Iranian opposition

WASHINGTON, DC  (Press Release)– Rep. Jim Moran (Democrat,Virginia) on MOnday introduced bipartisan legislation that would clarify current sanctions law to provide the Iranian people access to information and the ability to communicate both internally and with the outside world in an effort to undermine censorship and monitoring efforts by the Iranian government. 

When it authored the original Iran sanctions law several decades ago, Congress carved out an exception to protect the free exchange of information and educational materials between the people of the U.S. and the private citizens of Iran. But the exception does not take into account technological developments in recent years and some companies have withheld or cut off Iranian’s access to services such as web mail, instant messaging, and online news sites.

“Due to our outdated laws governing information sharing, U.S. sanctions have had the unintended consequence of denying the Iranian people the tools necessary to advance democracy,” said the Congressman. “This is a classic case of the law lagging behind the pace of technology. Given the tectonic shifts in Iranian society following the fraudulent national elections and emboldened democracy movement that rose from it, we need to move fast to make these sanctions smarter and more relevant to current technology.”

The Iranian Digital Empowerment Act (IDEA Act; H.R.4301) will clarify the intent of current sanctions law and enable the Iranian people to bypass the Iranian government’s online spying and censorship. The bill authorizes the provision of certain software and related services to Iran, specifically:

— Tools that allow private Iranian citizens to circumvent online censorship and monitoring efforts imposed by the Government of Iran; and

— Software and related services that enable the Iranian people to communicate with each other and the outside world

 “IDEA takes a smart approach to our existing sanctions policy by ensuring that Iranians fighting for change are strengthened — those at the front lines of the pro-democracy movement — and not the oppressive regime.” Moran said.

Reps. Bob Inglis (Republican, South Carolina) and Bill Delahunt (Democrat, Massachusetts) are original sponsors of the bill.

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Preceding provided by Congressman Moran