DUBAI (Reuters) — Iranian officials revoked a ban on Meta’s (META.O) instant messaging network WhatsApp and Google Play (GOOGL.O) as a first step toward easing internet restrictions, Iranian state media said on Tuesday.

The Islamic Republic has some of the most stringent Internet access regulations in the world, but its bans on US-based social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube are frequently circumvented by tech-savvy Iranians using virtual private networks.

“A positive majority vote has been reached to lift restrictions on access to some popular foreign platforms such as WhatsApp and Google Play,” Iran’s official IRNA news agency stated on Tuesday, referring to a meeting on the subject presided over by President Masoud Pezeshkian.

“Today, the first step in removing internet limitations… has been taken,” Iran’s Minister of Information and Communications Technology, Sattar Hashemi, told IRNA.

In September, the US called on Big Tech to assist in avoiding Internet censorship in nations that extensively monitor the internet, including Iran.

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