Over the past few weeks, Iranian apps are being ousted out of Apple's App Stores and the reason behind it is, apparently, pressure from the American government.
In a bizarre state of affairs, several popular Iranian apps, that have not flouted any of the Cupertino-based tech giant's rules, are being removed quite aggressively by the firm. The spree had started with a bunch of shopping and food delivery apps and as per NYT, the recent sweep saw the US firm removing one of the most popular Iranian apps - the app of a cab aggregator similar to that of Uber - from its store.
Mahdi Taghizadeh, the founder of DelionFoods, an Iranian online food delivery service company, took to the popular social media platform Twitter to voice his evident disgruntlement with the policy taken by Apple. He has initiated a campaign called #StopRemovingIranianApps to get his points across.
However, ironical it may sound but Twitter is an app not allowed by the Iranian government, but here's Mahdi using it, making one realize when there is a will there is away, perhaps, in the nerdiest way possible.
Iranian developers are also not sparing words to show their discontent against such an act by Apple, which is making a sizeable dent in their revenue.
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Apple tried to calm their nerves by offering them the explanation that, "Under the U.S. sanctions regulations, the App Store cannot host, distribute or do business with apps or developers connected to certain U.S. embargoed countries."
In response to this statement by Apple, Iran's telecommunications minister Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi "tweeted" that, "11 percent of the cell-phone market in Iran belongs to Apple. Respecting customer rights is a principle today that Apple hasn't abided by. We will legally pursue the omission of apps." Even the minister of Iran doesn't adhere to the country's rule against Twitter, it appears.
According to reports, Apple is not allowed to have an Iranian App Store or even operate any official businesses in Iran due to the US sanctions. Then again, as per a report by ValueWalk, iPhones are in high demand in Iran and millions of devices get smuggled into the country with not so legal means, whatsoever. To cater to this clientele, the Iranian developers cloak their apps as the products of Apple App Stores of other countries and circulate them.
