Document exempting MOOCs from Iran sanctions is here [1] in part (iii) It clearly exempts Iranian students from sanctions for undergraduate MOOCs and some more.<p>Coursera does the same. As an important contributor to education access, I expected more than indiscriminate banning of people, because of the country they are in <i></i>while the law allows it specifically<i></i>. Especially that is more important for Iranians under current the government.<p>It is important to be informed, the other option is to fall victim to the propaganda fed on national television to us every day.<p>For more context refer to list of sanctions and exemptions of Iran in treasury.gov [2] Iran License (No.G) contains more context.<p>[1] (https://home.treasury.gov/system/files/126/iran_glg.pdf)
[2] (https://home.treasury.gov/policy-issues/financial-sanctions/sanctions-programs-and-country-information/iran-sanctions)
I wonder if they are worried about the exception to that clause:
"... provided that the
courses are the equivalent of courses ordinarily required for the completion of
undergraduate degree programs in the humanities, social sciences, law, or
business, or are introductory undergraduate level science, technology,
engineering, or math courses ordinarily required for the completion of
undergraduate degree programs in the humanities, social sciences, law, or
business."<p>I wonder if these MOOC providers don't want to go through the headache of proving that their courses are equivalent and therefore preemptively took them down.
Coursera (or the third party api they use) couldn't verifying my identity with the Syrian passport, and justified that with sanctions, although I haven't been to Syria in a year and I'm living abroad.<p>I had to delay my online masters degree because of the fear of being denies access to the courses material, because I can't risk spending what is literally my three years work savings in Syria to get nothing.<p>They often think that it's easier for them to just deny all of the sanctioned countries access than having to get through a legal problem. And this applies to many things other than the MOOCs that are not sanctioned or sanctions don't apply to if you're living in another country.
This is why sanctions are bad policy, they indiscriminately cause hardships to citizens of the affected countries. These sanctions it appears only serves to grow resentment against US in these countries.
IP addresses linked to North Korea and Crimea are also blocked or at least were several years ago. I believe the issue is certain advanced technical courses being subject to sanctions -- at least that's what I heard secondhand.
No surprise. Edx is genuinely terrible. Their policy of storing emails is ridiculous. I remember their suggestion for the fact that I had made and deleted an account under my university was to "get a new university email" and they refused to transfer the courses my uni paid for!
This is an odd hill to die on, OP. Geopolitics is complicated - there are tons of things to iron out before this. I assure you there are other parts of the sanctions hurting Iranian students more than EdX being [incorrectly] blocked.
Also what is the propaganda you’re referring to?