Anti-China 'Remove China Apps' pulled down by Google Play Store; creators say 'Stay Tuned'

'Remove China Apps' which gained massive popularity in India crossing over 5 million downloads since its release in May has been pulled down by the Google Play Store on account of violating the Google Play Store’s policies. 'Remove China Apps' developed by Jaipur based company-- OneTouchAppLabs detected apps made in China on the users' phones and provided a simple UI to remove them. In less than two weeks, the app had crossed and was the top free app available on the Google PlayStore.

Taking to Twitter, the creators of the application thanked the people for their support revealing that even without the App, they could search the origin of any application by going on Google and typing origin country, thereby still continuing, the nation's clarion call to boycott Chinese products and software.  

While the exact reason behind the suspension of the 'Remove China App' from the Play Store is not known, reports suggest that it violated the 'Deceptive Behavior Policy.' While the app was registered under 'Educational Purposes', it actively detected third-party apps on the user's smartphone, and also suggested the users to remove the ones from China.  

On Tuesday India's so-called rival for TikTok-- Mitron app was also removed from the Google Play Store. Mitron app had crossed 5 million downloads within a month of its launch on Play Store. While the exact reason, in this case, is also not certain, according to Google’s policy, copying content from other applications without any changes to the original source code or value addition is a violation. It also states that creating multiple apps with highly similar functionality, content, and user experience violated it ‘spam and minimum functionality’ policy