Taliban propaganda app yanked from Google Play

Google usually tries to take a lax approach towards what apps are on the Play Store, but occasionally it steps in to remove something that’s a blatant offender of its app store policies. That’s happened this month with a Taliban propaganda app that reportedly violated Google’s policy on hate speech.

The app launched on April 1st (although it definitely wasn’t an April Fools joke) and was taken down quickly afterwards for “technical difficulties,” according to the developer. Turns out that there weren’t any technical difficulties, though. It was simply Google blocking the app.

Google hasn’t officially commented on the app or its takedown, but it does maintain that it curates apps to ensure a great experience for developers and users alike. Sure, that’s a canned response, but I don’t think anyone would expect much else.

The app in question listed things like articles, videos, and other content from the Islamist group.

It’s usually best for big companies to stay out of the way of users and not censor anything, but in this case it’s very understandable why Google had to step in. And it’s good to know that in case things do start to go south, Google isn’t afraid to fix an issue quickly and resolutely.

source: BBC

via: The Verge

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