Due to heavy information controls, Iranians face significant challenges when attempting to access the Internet. In addition, popular Iranian app markets such as Cafe Bazaar are not allowed to distribute any circumvention tools, and many tool developers over-comply with sanctions by not making their tools available to Iranians. Paskoocheh is a response to these problems.
Launched on July 1st, 2016, Paskoocheh is an open source app store (available on the web and as an Android app) developed by the ASL19 team. Paskoocheh curates and provides user support for privacy, circumvention, and anonymity tools, and in February 2017 it reached 850,000 download requests.
Anticipating that Paskoocheh would be blocked in Iran, ASL19 created alternative censorship-resistant channels to facilitate uninterrupted access to our tools. Users can request tool downloads from the project’s email or Telegram bots if they aren’t able to access the official website.