Google pulls out Remove China App from Play Store
Anam.Ajmal@timesgroup.com
New Delhi:04.06.2020
Google pulled out the ‘Remove China Apps’ (RCA) application from its Play Store on Tuesday. The app, which claimed to remove apps developed in China from a user’s phone, had gone viral amid a nerve-jangling border standoff between India and China.
According to analytics firm Sensor Tower, which tracks the number of downloads of popular applications, RCA was downloaded over 4.7 million times between May 27 and June 1. The app’s removal created an online furore. #RemoveChinaApps and #GooglePlayStore were among the top trends in India with 27k and 13k tweets on Wednesday.
Jaipur-based firm One-Touch AppLabs (OTA), who had developed RCA, took to Twitter to announce that the app was taken down by Google. “Dear Friends, Google has suspended our #Remove-ChinaApps from google play store. Thank you all for your support in past 2 weeks. “You Are Awesome” TIP: Its easy to find the origin of any app by searching on google by typing ‘AppName’ origin country. Stay Tuned !! Stay Safe!!” the firm tweeted late on Tuesday.
A Google spokesperson told TOI on Wednesday why the app was removed. “Our global Play policies are designed to provide a safe and secure experience for our users while also giving developers the tools they need to succeed. When violations of these policies are identified, we have an established process of working with developers to help them find remedies,” the spokesperson said.
The recent border stand-off had resulted in an online clamour for boycott of Chinese products. Some well-known personalities, too, had supported the call, prompting several Indian users to uninstall TikTok, a short video sharing application, owned by Chinese company Byte Dance.
The description on the OTA website stated that the app was developed for “educational purposes.” It added that it only identified the country of origin of a certain application
(s), but did not “promote or force people to uninstall any of the application(s).”
RCA was removed by Google because it violated policies defined under “Privacy, Security and Deception” categories which prohibit any app on the play store from being “deceptive, malicious, or intended to abuse or misuse any network, device, or personal data”
Earlier, Google had removed Mitron app, another short video sharing application that was dubbed to be the Indian alternative to TikTok. Several reports claimed that the developed by an IIT student. It was later found that the app was, in fact, developed by a Pakistani company.
POLICY VIOLATION
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