Google has been trying quite hard to clean up its app store which is understandable after a lot of apps containing malware as well as other unsavory elements were discovered on their platform. In an attempt to make its store a more trustworthy place, Google has primarily been attempting to get rid of spam accounts as well as developers that were posting clones of official apps, clones that were poorly masked attempts to steal data from users as well as potentially charge them for an experience that is not what they expected to get.
However, it seems like Google’s attempts to clean up its app store are not going quite well as the tech giant would have hoped. LibreTorrents is the official app on the Android store for people that want to try and download large files on their phone. It is the only torrents app that is not riddled with ads at best or malware at worst, and yet for some reason the owners of LibreTorrent found that their app had been banned for supposedly being a clone of other lower quality apps.
Yaroslav Pronin the creator of LibreTorrents asked Google to help on this issue, here's what the tech giant responded:
H/T: TorrentFreak
Read next: Google’s Threat Analysis Group Will Soon Start Sharing More Information on Preventing Government-Backed Hacking
However, it seems like Google’s attempts to clean up its app store are not going quite well as the tech giant would have hoped. LibreTorrents is the official app on the Android store for people that want to try and download large files on their phone. It is the only torrents app that is not riddled with ads at best or malware at worst, and yet for some reason the owners of LibreTorrent found that their app had been banned for supposedly being a clone of other lower quality apps.
Yaroslav Pronin the creator of LibreTorrents asked Google to help on this issue, here's what the tech giant responded:
We’ve reviewed your appeal request and found that your app (LibreTorrents) still violates Google Play Policy. During review, we found that your app violates the policy for Spam. We don’t allow apps that spam users or Google Play, such as apps that are duplicative and low-quality.It’s highly odd that Google banned the original torrent app while leaving the actual clones up and running, and it brings into question the validity of the filters that the company is using. While it’s important to note that the wrong app getting banned is definitely somewhat of a rare occurrence, the fact of the matter is that when it happens to a big name app like this it will definitely make it less likely that people would trust the apps that currently are on the store. Google definitely needs to do better if it wants to clean up its app store and bring it on par with the likes of Apple, something that its millions of users would definitely want.
H/T: TorrentFreak
Read next: Google’s Threat Analysis Group Will Soon Start Sharing More Information on Preventing Government-Backed Hacking
