Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Google bans my events app for referencing Covid-19, or related terms

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

1–10 of 219 posts

Google bans my events app for referencing Covid-19, or related terms

#1

Post by kujaomega »

I'm an independent developer and in this thread I will show you the succession of events that lead to Google ban of my app.

In september 2019 I decided to start developing as a fulltime project an Android app about physical events in Spain.

At the end of February 2020 I launched the app.

March 14 2020 started the confinement in Spain. Weeks later I decided to pivot the app to include online events, movies and tv shows ranking of online streaming platforms.

This May 2020, I launched the update and reoriented the app as a Things to do app (Only available in Spain). So I used the following description of the app:

Title: "Tintodo - Things to do"

Short description: "The best things to do, online events and movies"

Full description:

"Are you thinking of things to do when bored? Or are you planning what to do tomorrow? With this app you can discover online events and movies from your favourite online platforms.

Find out online events in your quarantine like activities, meetups, cooking recipes, business and networking events. You can also filter the types of events and if they are free or paid events.

Thanks to this app, you will never be bored tonight. You have a ranking of the best movies in all online movie platforms, which will allow you to enjoy this confinement and is one of the main sources of things to do in your free time.

Note: We don’t play movies in this app. This app allows you to browse movies in your favorite platform, some of the movies are free, some not, the owners of those platforms are the ones who own the rights of the movies."

17 May 2020, Google suspended my app for using keywords related to COVID-19.

This is my case, but in a near future, how I can advertise my users or future users that my app behaviour is different due to COVID, I have no chance. 8 months developing that lead to a suspension for using covid words, at least, It's not 9 years like the Podcast Addict app.

Re: Google bans my events app for referencing Covid-19, or related terms

#2

Post by wodenokoto »

That is rough. I had to read your text several times to find anything related to COVID, but I guess it is the "which will allow you to enjoy this confinement" part.

I'm no expert, but I guess you need to try and phrase it like it just the thing you need when you are home, and let the users figure out why they are home.

Re: Google bans my events app for referencing Covid-19, or related terms

#3

Post by trca »

wodenokoto wrote: post #2

That is rough. I had to read your text several times to find anything related to COVID, but I guess it is the "which will allow you to enjoy this confinement" part. I'm no expert, but I guess you need to try and phrase it like it just the thing you need when you are home, and let the users figure out why they are home.

Could also be mentioning of "quarantine" directly. Might make sense to make your app description more generic to just being home, so that it will still be applicable after the COVID-19 pandemic has come to a conclusion.

Re: Google bans my events app for referencing Covid-19, or related terms

#5

Post by cryptoquick »

Google is just such an awful, despicable company, that I've actually moved everything I can from their platform. It wasn't easy, I'd been a Gmail user for nearly 15 years. I'd rather pay Microsoft a hundred bucks a year than support them. That's how much I hate Google.

Re: Google bans my events app for referencing Covid-19, or related terms

#6

Post by nocturnial »

Could you post your back-and-forth with google support?

In the worst case, I doubt it will resolve anything but it could give other developers an idea on how or how not to communicate with google. In the best case, you might restore your app on google and have a template for other developers on how to deal with this issue.

If you have send a request but didn't get a reply, please post those as well.

Re: Google bans my events app for referencing Covid-19, or related terms

#7

Post by coffeefirst »

Uhrheber wrote: post #4

Artificial intelligence? More like dumber than the dumbest human.

Yes. Going after the crop of fraudsters and SEO scammers trying to cash in on the crisis is a fine idea. But between this and Podcast Addict, it's pretty clear they're just indiscriminately deleting everything or trusting and algorithm to make hard calls.

The odds are good they ban Red Cross or a reputable news organization.

Re: Google bans my events app for referencing Covid-19, or related terms

#8

Post by leppr »

I've long wished there was a more encompassing alternative to F-Droid, which would include the same payment facilities as Google Play (paid app, in-app payments, subscriptions), allow proprietary apps (but still give FOSS as a search filter and show it as a prominent feature on the app page), and offer plenty of user curation features ala Steam and make filters optional (which would allow communities of independent reviewers to vet apps for child-safety, not being COVID-related, etc... and users to chose whether to restrict themselves to that selection or not).

It's quite amazing when you think about it, that two US companies have absolute power over deciding what 99% of people in the world can do with a device that many would describe as an extension of themselves.

Re: Google bans my events app for referencing Covid-19, or related terms

#10

Post by nocturnial »

leppr wrote: post #8

I've long wished there was a more encompassing alternative to F-Droid, which would include the same payment facilities as Google Play (paid app, in-app payments, subscriptions), allow proprietary apps (but still give FOSS as a search filter and show it as a prominent feature on the app page), and offer plenty of user curation features ala Steam and make filters optional (which would allow communities of independent r…

Epic games tried to side step google:

> When Fortnite launched on mobile in 2018, Epic Games very notably sidestepped the Google Play Store and pushed users to download the title directly from their website, an effort made to avoid the substantial revenue cuts that Google takes from in-app purchases of Play Store downloads. After 18 months of harsh rhetoric regarding platform gatekeeping, Epic Games says that Fortnite is now available for download on the Google Play Store, though it will still be downloadable from fortnite.com moving forward.

> Google puts software downloadable outside of Google Play at a disadvantage, through technical and business measures such as scary, repetitive security pop-ups for downloaded and updated software, restrictive manufacturer and carrier agreements and dealings, Google public relations characterizing third party software sources as malware, and new efforts such as Google Play Protect to outright block software obtained outside the Google Play store,: an Epic Games spokesperson said in a statement. "Because of this, we've launched Fortnite for Android on the Google Play Store."

Post reply on HN