Google has told Android developers they can now offer free apps in Iran, while Apple has removed Iran from its list of countries to which sales of its products are prohibited.
“Developers, starting today you can make your free apps available in Iran,” Google said in a Google+ post Monday.
Computer World said the decisions appeared linked to the US announcement in May lifting sanctions on the export to Iran of a variety of consumer communications devices and software and services including mobile phones.
Exports of the devices to Iran had been blocked since the 1990s, but the US Treasury decided that its new permission to export would empower the Iranian people as the Iranian government intensified efforts to stifle access to information.
Technology covered under the new Treasury policy include fee-based services, software and hardware required for personal communications over the Internet, including instant messaging, email, chat, social networking, sharing of photos and movies, web browsing and blogging.
The products, software and services now authorized for export to Iran also include mobile phones, personal digital assistants, satellite phones, computers, consumer network equipment, anti-tracking software, anti-censorship tools, virtual private networks, proxy tools and voice-over-IP and video chat tools.
Google said Monday that the new distribution option for developers is currently available only for free apps and not for priced apps or apps that use in-app billing.
The new US Treasury policy authorizes financial transactions related to the products it covers, said the New America Foundation in Washington, DC.
The move by Google will give Iranians access to a number of important tools that activists use to protect themselves from surveillance, but developers have to still opt to make their apps available in Iran, it said.
Google’s competitor, Apple, has also apparently removed Iran from its list of prohibited destinations for its products like the iPhone, iPad and Mac and associated software, citing the new Treasury policy.