With Pokémon GO having brought the joy of discovering pocket monsters in the real world to another 15 countries, Iran has banned Niantic’s augmented reality app over unspecified “security concerns.”
The BBC reports that the High Council of Virtual Spaces made the ruling, which is the country’s official body that oversees online activity.
Iran isn’t alone in expressing their concern about the app, but it has become the first to have banned it outright. The authorities were believed to have been waiting to see whether Niantic would co-operate with them, but the decision appears that they weren’t satisfied with their discussions.
In other countries around the world, Indonesia has banned their police force from playing the app while on duty, a leading Saudi cleric has reinforced a fatwa (religious ruling) against the app in that it contains “forbidden images” and violates an Islamic ban on gambling.
While authorities in New York want to ban 3,000 registered sex offenders from playing Pokémon GO while they are on parole, in an effort to help safeguard children.
