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Iran Bans Pokemon Go Over 'Security Concerns' (usatoday.com) 71

Posted by BeauHD from the impending-doom dept.
An anonymous reader writes: Iran has become the first country to ban Pokemon Go, the mobile game where users (aka Pokemon trainers) roam the physical world in search for digital creatures known as Pokemon. The country cites security concerns for the reason behind the ban. "Any game that wants to operate nationwide in Iran needs to obtain permission from the ministry of culture and Islamic guidance, and the Pokemon Go app has not yet requested such a permission," Abolhasan Firouzabadi, the head of Iran's supreme council of virtual space, told the Isna news agency. The Guardian reports that Iranian officials feel that the game can create problems for the country and its people. Iranian authorities use smart filtering software, a system that affects connectivity speeds and in many cases has replaced more traditional mechanisms for blocking internet services, the Guardian reported.
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Iran Bans Pokemon Go Over 'Security Concerns' More

Iran Bans Pokemon Go Over 'Security Concerns'

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  • GPS Spoof (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I'm going to GPS spoof all throughout that country. I wonder if highly populated areas with little to no activity increase rewards somehow.

  • Smart (Score:3, Interesting)

    by PPH ( 736903 ) on Monday August 08, 2016 @07:24PM (#52668187)

    How long will it be before someone sets up a PokeStop or Pokemon gym or whatever it is that causes people to congregate at a location and plants a bomb there? Or just messes with people by planting a rare Pokemon inside some sacred temple like the Kaaba?

    • The Stops are in churches and mosques and all sorts of places by default. It isn't uncommon for you to see Lures placed in them since people spend a great deal of time sitting still when you're there.
    • Becuase until there was pokemon, people rarely gathered in large crowds conducive to mass murder? How long will it be until someone sets up a starbucks that causes people to congregate at a location and plants a bomb there?

      • It's a matter of magnitude. Imagine a Pokestop in a Starbucks.

        • A Pokestop is active onece every five minutes at most Hardly going to cause massive crowds to gather.

          As far as I can tell, there are seven or eight Pokestops in my neighborhood (depending on how you count "in my neighborhood - the library is across the street at the outer corner), and I've never seen people gathering at any of them that wouldn't be there if there wasn't a Pokestop....

        • I don't have to imagine it. There are already pokestops near most starbucks. And it attracts people who would otherwise be at starbucks, to starbucks, but now they are playing pokemon.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by PPH ( 736903 )

        someone sets up a starbucks

        One would be a problem. But there are so many Starbucks that the population density of customers is fairly well distributed.

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by monkeyman.kix ( 4487805 )

      How long will it be before someone sets up a PokeStop or Pokemon gym or whatever it is that causes people to congregate at a location and plants a bomb there? Or just messes with people by planting a rare Pokemon inside some sacred temple like the Kaaba?

      Oh thats right, we should all go back indoors and forget that there is a real world out there. Its terrible that we have become so insulated and fearful of what could potentially happen that the first sign that we feel we can emerge from our darkened basements to see the outside (however augmented it may be) that someone screams chicken and wants us all back inside where its "safe". This is what the terrorists want. In fact this is what most governments want. They want and need a fearful populace so the lea

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by aliquis ( 678370 )

      The Muslims were just fine altering the Kaaba in the first Place.

      At-least it would be more real, more purposeful, more peaceful and allow more people to join in.

      The problem for the Iranian religitards is of course that people may find out how fun life may be when you're not a brainwashed monotheist who spend your whole life with one thing where that thing is a complete obsession with what to do when you're not living any longer.

  • Good Spy technique (Score:3, Funny)

    by Virtucon ( 127420 ) on Monday August 08, 2016 @07:33PM (#52668213)

    Put all the Pokemon in that highly secure Atomic Bomb I mean er uhm Peaceful Uranium enrichment plant. Free Spying for everyone.

  • Define irony (Score:4)

    by agm ( 467017 ) on Monday August 08, 2016 @09:43PM (#52668635)

    A theocracy banning a pasttime that sees you out seeking for beings that aren't really there.

  • First country? (Score:4, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 08, 2016 @10:31PM (#52668765)

    Someone forgot Saudi Arabia [slashdot.org]. Iran is only the first to do it over security concerns.

  • You can walk down the Strip in Las Vegas and see all the people running into each other as they try to catch those pokemon. It used to be that you went to see the sites, drink a really tall cocktail, and lose your spare change on slots. Now all I see are people staring at phones.

    • Now all I see are people staring at phones.

      Well, look at the bright side. You can take women back to your hotel room while their boyfriends look for imaginary animals.

  • ..these are the folks we should have involved in internet governance
    via UN [reuters.com]
    other venues [netmundial.br]

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