Most hosting companies had stopped offering services to Iranians. The companies introduce automated checks of transactions and contact details to sieve Iranian businesses and “flag” them.
The reason cited as sanctions by the international community or by OFAC through the United Nations Security Council.
According to General License D-1 published by United States’ Office of Foreign Assets Control on Iranian Transactions and Sanctions Regulations, US-based entities barred from offering web-hosting services to commercial endeavors or domain name registration services to Iranians.
Iranians banned from using US-based payment services, and they cannot purchase applications and games via conventional app stores. They use alternative app stores common in China and Russia.
The international sanctions imposed on the Iranian economy were eased last year as part of the nuclear deal (better known as Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action or JCPOA). The deal was signed between the government of President Hassan Rouhani and P5+1 (the US, Britain, France, Russia and China plus Germany) in 2015. In exchange, Iran agreed to limit the scope of its nuclear activities.
