Baku, Azerbaijan, March 6



By Fatih Karimov – Trend:



Iran has temporary blocked access to Waze, a GPS-based geographical navigation application due to its Israeli background.



Access to the app was blocked in recent days and the Iranian Committee for Determining Offensive Contents will make the final decision about the ban, an informed source told semi-official Fars news agency.



The committee will hold a meeting on March 8 to discuss the permanent ban of the access to Waze, the source added.



The current ban is implemented after receiving approval from the majority of the committee members, according to the source.



The Israeli background of Waze has raised concerns about the consequences of its usage in Iran, the source added.



Last week, Iran’s Judiciary ordered the local Android marketplace Cafe Bazaar to remove Waze from its website.



Waze, formerly FreeMap Israel was first developed and popularized by the Israeli company Waze Mobile.



Waze Mobile was founded in Israel by Ehud Shabtai, Amir Shinar and Uri Levine, funded by 2 Israeli venture capital firms, Magma and Vertex and an early-stage American venture capital firm Bluerun Ventures, and eventually acquired by Google in 2013.