Iranian officials have issued an ultimatum to Apple: telling the company that it must officially register in Iran or have its products banned.
“If Apple will not register an official representative in Iran within the next few days, all iPhones will be collected from the market,” the local Tasnim News Agency quotes the director of Iran’s anti-smuggling office as having said.
Although negotiations have reportedly been going on, Apple does not yet officially sell iPhones in Iran. Despite this, millions of iPhones are being used in the country — after being imported by smugglers.
Launched by the president’s office, the new anti-smuggling project would seek to ban these phones, along with any others that have entered the country illegally. The scheme orders that all mobile phones must be registered with Iran’s telecommunications database. According to a representative from the anti-smuggling office, there is no legal limitation to Apple registering a store in Iran.
Although cracking down on smuggled goods sounds sensible on paper, however, some IT activists in the country are upset at the news — pointing out that not only will seizing millions of iPhones be difficult, but that the initiative also raises potential security concerns.
Last year, the maker of messaging app Telegram had his creation blocked in Iran on the basis that, allegedly, he refused to help authorities to spy on their own citizens. Iranian officials previously stated that tech companies could only offer their apps if they respect Iran’s “cultural rules and policies,” and did not aid in the sharing of “immoral content.”
Source: Japan Times
Luke Dormehl is a U.K.-based journalist and author, with a background working in documentary film for Channel 4 and the BBC. He is the author of The Apple Revolution and The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems … and Create More, both published by Penguin/Random House. His tech writing has also appeared in Wired, Fast Company, Techmeme and other publications.
3 responses to “Millions of iPhones at risk of being seized in Iran”
If people are smuggling things into the country, how is that Apple’s fault?
Also, if Apple is not already selling its products in your location, there must be a reason why. Negotiations are under way, but they probably involve privacy and security discussions that neither side wants to back down on.
The title is misleading, current iPhone users would not be affected according to officials. They say they want to ban selling these devices in the country because any ‘gadget’ sold in the market should have an official representative in the country. I’m not supporting it (definitely), and I don’t think it’s going to be implemented anyway (or at least it’s not going to last long).
By the way, Persian users of iOS have been waiting for some caring from Apple for a couple of years now. Still no Persian keyboard on iOS, I can’t remember how many times I’ve asked for it. :)
Fine. Let Android suck up to a tyrannical state just to make a buck. Let them “be evil”. Then make sure the world knows about that.