The US Treasury Department added Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi, the Islamic Republic of Iran’s minister of communication to the list of sanctions for his involvement in “widespread internet censorship by the regime of Iran”.

The statement mentions that access to the internet in Iran, which is supervised by Jahromi, has been blocked after concerns of the Islamic Republic officials regarding the anti-regime protests.

“The leaders of Iran know that an open and free internet will reveal their illegitimacy. So, they shut down access to the internet in order to suppress the anti-regime protests,” US Secretary of Treasury Steve Mnuchin said.

He continued: “Our sanction against the minister of communication is for limiting access to the internet, including popular messenger applications that connect tens of millions of Iranians to each other and to the outside world.”

Based on the sanctions, all properties and interests of minister Jahromi in the United States or under the control of an American will be frozen and reported to the Treasury Department.

Previously, a group of Iranian activists wrote an open letter to President Trump, calling for banning the Islamic Republic’s state-Tv and its officials from all social media.

According to NetBlocks, internet access in Iran increased to over 10 percent.