Banning of apps has become a common topic in these recent days as India has already banned 170 Chinese apps in the last 2 months. It was a shock to the entire India when Paytm was removed from the play store without any prior intimation. The owner and CEO of Paytm is Vijay Shekhar Sharma in collaboration with One97 Communications limited. Although Paytm uses one of the Chinese software, it does not help China receive any private information from India.
Paytm was removed from the Google play store because it violated the guidelines.
Paytm had launched a new feature of fantasy “Paytm Cricket League” in which the users can win cash rewards on the grounds of how a player is actually performing in IPL. Basically, it was believed that Paytm began “online gambling” which is against the guidelines of the Google play store.
This step was taken by the google play store a few hours after Suzanne Frey Vice President, product, android security and privacy laid out new guidelines about online gambling in a blog post.
She wrote, “We have these policies to protect users from potential harm. When an app violates these policies, we notify the developer of the violation and remove the app from Google Play until the developer brings the app into compliance. And in the case where 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.”
She also added, “We have the same goals for our gambling policy. We don’t allow online casinos or support any unregulated gambling apps that facilitate sports betting. This includes if an app leads consumer to an external website that allows them to participate in paid tournaments to win real money or cash prizes, it is a violation of our policies.”
In response to the removal of this app from the play store, Paytm replied by saying, “Paytm Android app is temporarily unavailable on Google’s Play Store for new downloads or updates. It will be back very soon. All your money is completely safe, and you can continue to enjoy your Paytm app as normal.” Paytm no-where mentioned that it was removed from the google play store due to the violations.
BY SOURCES- It was earlier mentioned that Google had warned the company before removal of their app as they had not followed the guidelines, google even asked Paytm to make the necessary changes but the company did no and thus it was removed for 5-6 hours from the play store. After making certain payment and removing the “cashback component” then only it was back on Google play store.
Even though Paytm was removed from the Google play store, it was yet available on Apple’s app store. At the end, Paytm conveyed a message to the panicky users to calm down and assured them that their money was safe and the app will be back on Google Play store shortly, thus the app was back after 5-6 hours, only after they made the necessary “corrections”.
NEWS REPORTED BY:
VRIDHI BHAGNARI.
