Google takes down popular Indian app that removed Chinese apps
Alphabet Inc’s Google has removed an Indian mobile application from its app store that allowed users to eliminate other Chinese software from their phones as it violated certain company policies, a spokesman said on Wednesday.
The app, “Remove China Apps”, had become top trending free application on Google’s mobile iphone app store in India with more than five million downloads since late May. Its popularity rose amid demands a boycott of Chinese mobile applications in India during a Himalayan border dispute between your two nations.
A Google spokesman confirmed to Reuters the iphone app had been removed due to violation of iphone app store policies, but gave no more details.
A person familiar with the problem said the software violated Google’s policies prohibiting software that mislead users into removing or disabling third-party software or modifying device settings or features.
Remove China Apps scanned users’ phones for programs such as for example ByteDance’s TikTok and Alibaba’s UC Browser. Once deleted, a note popped up saying “You are awesome, no China software found.”
OneTouch AppLabs, which developed the app, did not respond to a obtain comment. On its website it confirmed the application have been removed and thanked users for their support.
Many Indians and a spokeswoman for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling party have used the hash tag #BoycottChineseProducts on social media, calling for deletion of popular Chinese apps.
