Given the Coronavirus outbreak, and India’s border tensions with China, anti-China sentiments are running at an all time high. Capitalizing on these sentiments and furthering the propaganda of anti-Chinese products; apps like Mitron and Remove China Apps had gained vast popularity recently.
It will come as a shock to find out that Google has removed both these top apps from the playstore! Those who’ve already installed can still use them though.
Developed by Jaipur-based OneTouch AppLabs and available only to Android users, The Remove China Apps, had over 1 million downloads before deletion. It helped users detect and uninstall Chinese apps on their smartphones by scanning their devices and using market research to find the app developers’ origin country.
It was removed from Play Store for violating Google’s Deceptive Behaviour Policy, which doesn’t allow apps that encourage, incentivise or mislead users into removing or disabling third-party apps.
Similarly, Mitron, devised by IIT-Roorkee student Shivank Agarwal as India’s answer to the Chinese app TikTok, was pulled from the Google Play Store for not complying with its policies. It had surpassed 5 million downloads before removal.
Google stated that the app violated their ‘spam and minimum functionality’ and ‘repetitive content’ policies.
According to the policy – “We don’t allow apps that merely provide the same experience as other apps already on Google Play. Apps should provide value to users through the creation of unique content or services.”
“At a minimum, apps should provide users with a basic degree of functionality and a respectful user experience. Apps that crash, exhibit other behavior that is not consistent with a functional user experience, or that serve only to spam users or Google Play are not apps that expand the catalog in a meaningful way.”
Moreover, the app also had vulnerability issues since it hadn’t uploaded a privacy policy. It was also found that Mitron’s entire source code was purchased from Pakistani software developing company, Qboxus even though it ironically claimed to be an Indian alternative.