OldTwilight
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Google Play on Friday removed Iranian apps from its store in compliance with 22-year old U.S. sanctions against Iran.
Those sanctions cover virtually all transactions between the U.S. and Iran, “including the provision of goods, technology, and services,” said Tyler Cullis, an associate attorney at Ferrari & Associates P.C. who specializes in U.S. economic sanctions and export controls.
In this case, Google was providing Iranians with a service by hosting the apps. That put Google — along with Apple, which removed Iranian apps from its store in August — in violation of the sanctions.
“I’m unclear as to why they’d done so up until this time,” said Cullis.
In 2014 President Barack Obama’s administration issued a new license allowing companies such as Apple and Google to open their apps stores to Iranians. The idea was to “win over young Iranians by giving them access to app stores, or Macbooks or tablets,” said Cullis. But that license did not cover hosting apps developed by Iranians.
According to Cullis, sanctions such as the one preventing companies from hosting Iranian-developed apps “really just restrict innocuous activity.”
“You read Iranian Twitter today and everyone is just inflamed…it’s made them angrier than ever…it really antagonizes Iranian youth,” said Cullis.
Google Play opened access to Iranian consumers in 2013. Around 50 percent of the country of 80 million people are 30 or younger. There are roughly 48 million smartphone users there, making it a lucrative market.
Removal of apps such as ride-hailing app Snapp will likely drive consumers to Iranian startups such as Café Bazaar, a third-party app store available there.
Cullis said Apple and Google could apply for licenses allowing them to host those apps, and those applications would likely be approved by the U.S. Treasury Department Office of Foreign Assets Control.
Barring that move, it’s unlikely that the comprehensive sanction prohibiting hosting Iranian apps will be relaxed by the administration of President Donald Trump.
Despite recertifying the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, Trump signed a new round of sanctions against Iran in July, targeting the country’s ballistic missile program.
The nuclear deal saw Iran curbing its nuclear program in exchange for some sanctions against it being relaxed. Despite assurances from the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency (IAEA) that Iran is in full compliance with the terms of the deal, the Trump administration has been looking for ways to break or renegotiate the deal.
https://thinkprogress.org/google-play-iranian-apps-sanctions-2e7ba4b1649d/
what kind of integrity our officials have with Americans !?
5 days ago Iranians governmental companies sue some Iranian IT companies for "dumping" and now Americans are removing Apps of those companies ...
والله هماهنگی عجیبی بین مسئولین ما و آمریکایی ها وجود داره ....
از یک طرف مسئولین ما می خواهند اینترانت ملی راه بندازند و از اون طرف هم غربی ها دارند تک تک سرویس های مفید بین اللمللی رو روی ایران می بندند .... نتیجه هم کاملا مشخصه ...
از سیب و گلابی های برجام هم که خبری نشد ....
Those sanctions cover virtually all transactions between the U.S. and Iran, “including the provision of goods, technology, and services,” said Tyler Cullis, an associate attorney at Ferrari & Associates P.C. who specializes in U.S. economic sanctions and export controls.
In this case, Google was providing Iranians with a service by hosting the apps. That put Google — along with Apple, which removed Iranian apps from its store in August — in violation of the sanctions.
“I’m unclear as to why they’d done so up until this time,” said Cullis.
In 2014 President Barack Obama’s administration issued a new license allowing companies such as Apple and Google to open their apps stores to Iranians. The idea was to “win over young Iranians by giving them access to app stores, or Macbooks or tablets,” said Cullis. But that license did not cover hosting apps developed by Iranians.
According to Cullis, sanctions such as the one preventing companies from hosting Iranian-developed apps “really just restrict innocuous activity.”
“You read Iranian Twitter today and everyone is just inflamed…it’s made them angrier than ever…it really antagonizes Iranian youth,” said Cullis.
Google Play opened access to Iranian consumers in 2013. Around 50 percent of the country of 80 million people are 30 or younger. There are roughly 48 million smartphone users there, making it a lucrative market.
Removal of apps such as ride-hailing app Snapp will likely drive consumers to Iranian startups such as Café Bazaar, a third-party app store available there.
Cullis said Apple and Google could apply for licenses allowing them to host those apps, and those applications would likely be approved by the U.S. Treasury Department Office of Foreign Assets Control.
Barring that move, it’s unlikely that the comprehensive sanction prohibiting hosting Iranian apps will be relaxed by the administration of President Donald Trump.
Despite recertifying the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, Trump signed a new round of sanctions against Iran in July, targeting the country’s ballistic missile program.
The nuclear deal saw Iran curbing its nuclear program in exchange for some sanctions against it being relaxed. Despite assurances from the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency (IAEA) that Iran is in full compliance with the terms of the deal, the Trump administration has been looking for ways to break or renegotiate the deal.
https://thinkprogress.org/google-play-iranian-apps-sanctions-2e7ba4b1649d/
what kind of integrity our officials have with Americans !?
5 days ago Iranians governmental companies sue some Iranian IT companies for "dumping" and now Americans are removing Apps of those companies ...
والله هماهنگی عجیبی بین مسئولین ما و آمریکایی ها وجود داره ....
از یک طرف مسئولین ما می خواهند اینترانت ملی راه بندازند و از اون طرف هم غربی ها دارند تک تک سرویس های مفید بین اللمللی رو روی ایران می بندند .... نتیجه هم کاملا مشخصه ...
از سیب و گلابی های برجام هم که خبری نشد ....
