Executive order targets Internet monitoring in Syria and Iran

AP photo

President Obama issued an executive order Monday authorizing sanctions against Syrian intelligence chief Ali Mamluk and other Syrian and Iranian officials and agencies for using the Internet, cellphones and other new technology to commit human rights abuses.

The directive described Syrian and Iranian efforts to monitor, track, disrupt or outright block citizens' Internet and cellphone access. It also targets companies that sell that tracking technology to the regimes.

In addition to Mamluk, the order names Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, Ministry of Intelligence and Security, and law enforcement. It also named the Syrian telecom company Syriatel and the Iranian telecom firm Datak, both of which have assisted their governments in tracking and blocking dissidents' Internet communication, the Treasury Department said in a fact sheet describing the order.

"The [executive order] sends a clear message that the United States condemns the continuing campaigns of violence and human rights abuses against the people of Syria and Iran by their governments and provides a tool to hold accountable those who assist in or enable such abuses through the use of information and communications technology," Treasury stated.

Social media and other online communication greatly facilitated organizing among protesters during the Green Revolution following Iran's disputed 2009 presidential election and the Arab spring protests beginning in 2010.

Regimes inside and outside the Arab world have long relied on various forms of Internet monitoring, tracking and manipulation. Monday's executive order targets only Iran and Syria, both of which are already subject to numerous other U.S. sanctions.

Syrian President Basher Assad's government has faced months of uprisings against its rule. The United States, so far, has failed to push significant international sanctions against Syria through the United Nations Security Council but won approval earlier this month to send 300 observers to monitor a tenuous cease-fire.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has made global Internet freedom a major priority of her tenure. U.S. officials have launched numerous programs to help dissidents and citizens circumvent Internet monitoring.