Google Play started trending on Twitter after Deepak Abbot, Founder of gold-based lending startup , tweeted about the termination of the app from the Play Store.
“No warning, no prior violation notice, still one of our App + the Dev account terminated with no explanation,” he tweeted.
Responding to a question on the thread asking how he was planning to take up the issue with Google, Deepak responded the company filed an appeal but all channels were slow and the team was trying to reach out to people.
This is not the first time Google Play Store has taken down apps. In September 2020, it pulled down and its gaming app, Paytm First Games, for allegedly violating its policies.
Hours later, Paytm Founder and CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma announced that the app was back on the app store.
He also later tweeted about the reason behind the suspension of the Paytm app from Google Play Store, “We launched a UPI CashBack campaign this morning. Our app got suspended by Google for this. India, you decide if giving cash back is gambling.”
Lending his support to Deepak, the Paytm executive tweeted, “This is clearly what we need to solve for @GoI_MeitY. India’s digital businesses are hostage to such acts with no recourse.”
Nitin Misra and Deepak Abbot, the former executives of Paytm, founded indiagold in 2020 as a startup that offers users the option to store gold in lockers at much cheaper rates than banks, and also provides a credit line for the deposited gold.
Deepak and the team received an outpour of support from users online for the disruption. One of the comments on Deepak’s tweet pointed out that if any of the developers associated with the Play Store account issues a strike, Google enforces a ban.
On its policy page, Google explained its enforcement process by saying,
“Developers are responsible for addressing any policy issue and conducting extra due diligence to ensure that the remainder of their app is fully policy compliant. Failure to address policy violations in all of your apps may result in additional enforcement actions.”
In a blog, Suzanne Frey, Vice President, Product, Android Security and Privacy at Google, said that the company did not allow online casinos or support any unregulated gambling apps that facilitate sports betting.
The violation extends to apps that lead consumers to an external website that allows them to participate in paid tournaments to win real money or cash prizes. She added that the policies were meant to protect users from potential harm. When an app violates these policies, Google notifies the developer of the violation and removes the app from Google Play until the developer brings the app into compliance.
“In case there are repeated policy violations, we may take more serious action, which may include terminating Google Play Developer accounts. Our policies are applied and enforced on all developers consistently,” reads the blog.
