After Mitron, Google takes down Remove China Apps from Play Store
The app's download apparently rose in tandem with the rising sentiments against China in India, which has been developing for various reasons, especially with the spread of the novel coronavirus pandemic.
After taking down the short-form video platform Mitron from its Play Store, due to the violation of its ‘spam and minimum functionality’ policy, has now removed another trending app named 'Remove China Apps'.
The Remove China Apps was apparently launched two weeks ago to let users delete all applications on their phones that are developed in China. These apps include TikTok, ShareIt, UC Browser, CamScanner, among others.
The said app scans the user’s device and lists the apps with China as their origin so that users can uninstall them. According to Sensor Tower data, until last week, the app had already crossed 4.7 million downloads, and even made it to the top ten spots of 'top-free' app on the Google Play Store.
Remove China Apps was developed by Jaipur-based OneTouchAppLabs, which announced the development on Twitter.
On its website, the Jaipur-based company said that this was its first initiative in the direction of self-reliant India, and that Remove China Apps crossed one million downloads within 10 days of launch.
In response to query, Google confirmed that the 'Remove China Apps' app was suspended due to policy violation of its ‘spam and minimum functionality’ policy. Besides this, Google's Deceptive Behaviour rules also spell out that an app cannot mislead users into removing or disabling third-party apps, or modifying device settings or features.
The app's download apparently rose in tandem with the rising sentiments against China in India, which has been developing for various reasons, especially with the spread of the novel coronavirus pandemic. A survey recently revealed that 67 percent of Indians hold China responsible for the spread of COVID-19.
The sentiments even rose when Sonam Wangchuk, an engineer-turned-education reformer, started sharing videos on social media with a message on boycotting Chinese products.
In his tweets and videos, Sonam said that Indians should use their wallet power to not buy products and services made in China.
Edited by Suman Singh