Iranians have been banned from downloading apps from the App Store, Gizmodo has confirmed. The ban was first reported by Bleeping Computer, which spoke to an Iranian security researcher. The researcher, Meysam Firouzi, said since around noon he had only been able to access the App Store using a virtual private network (VPN), which can be used to mask someone’s physical location. Gizmodo verified the ban was in place through an independent test.