US Justice Department: Iranian news websites blocked for violating sanctions
The US Department of Justice (DOJ) said Tuesday it had seized 33 Iranian and regional websites and took them offline, claiming they violated US sanctions.
Earlier in the day, a notice appeared on the websites of a series of Iranian and regional television networks, citing US sanctions laws for the seizure.
The notice was accompanied by the seals of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the US Department of Commerce.
The DOJ said in its statement, "Today, pursuant to court orders, the United States seized 33 websites used by the Iranian Islamic Radio and Television Union (IRTVU) and three websites operated by Kata’ib Hizballah (KH), in violation of US sanctions."
Among the websites seized were the websites of Iran’s English-language television news network Press TV and Al Alam, its Arabic-language equivalent. Both of them came back online using Iranian domain addresses Alalam.ir and Presstv.ir.
The DOJ said the 33 domains used by IRTVU are owned by an American company and that IRTVU did not obtain a license from Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control before using the domain names.
Over the past years, the United States has, for several times, taken similar measures against Iranian media outlets.
The US tech giant Google has recurrently taken on Press TV more than any other Iranian outlet given the expanse of its viewership and readership.
In March, Google for the seventh time blocked the English-language news network’s access to its official YouTube account without any prior notice, citing "violations of community guidelines."
The US-based social media giant Facebook also informed Press TV in the same month that its account had been shut down for what it claimed to be the Iranian news channel’s failure to “follow our Community Standards.” The page was reinstated a few days later.
The Tehran-based English-language news network has repeatedly fallen victim to censorship on multiple fronts, including Twitter and Instagram besides Google and its services.
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