Starting late yesterday, students visiting our site from Cuba, Iran, and Sudan will get no farther than our firewall.
Due to sanctions levied by the United States government, we are currently unable to offer our education services, including discussion forums and course certificates, to students within Cuba, Iran, and Sudan.
We are taking these actions voluntarily and working hard to obtain special licenses from the U.S. government so that we can restore service to students in the affected countries as soon as possible.
This situation puts us in company with some prominent MOOC providers who have also had to restrict access to community members in those three nations, but having company is cold comfort to us and those in our community who will be affected.
Please know that our efforts to comply with the law are matched by our efforts to get back, as soon as possible, to providing education to everyone who wants it, regardless of national boundaries.
A rather short-sighted policy from the US government. This sort of ban imposes no financial cost on the target regimes but removes a chance to bring together people from diverse backgrounds which should be a positive step.