“Remove China Apps” application, which is rapidly gaining popularity in India amid a confrontation between the country and China on the border in the Himalayas, has been removed from the Play Store.
The program allows to identify applications created by Chinese developers, and immediately delete everything all at once from a smartphone or tablet running Android. However, this is contrary to Google’s store policy, which prohibits users from uninstalling or disabling other third-party apps.
Remove China Apps: Google removes the controversial app from the store
Since its release a couple of days ago, Remove China Apps has been downloaded over five million times. Most often, the application was installed by users from India, which allowed it to lead the local Play Store chart. According to App Annie, the “anti-Chinese” app was also in demand in Australia. It held the fifth place in the utility category.
Some Chinese users responded by advising Indians to remove apps from Chinese companies then throw away their smartphones at the same time, most of which are designed and made in China. Nevertheless, the campaign to remove Chinese apps in India can have tangible consequences for owners of TikTok or UC Browser. The Indian market for them is the main one outside of China.
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India vs China
Earlier, Google removed millions of negative reviews from the Indians who reviewed TikTok with 1 star. A Google spokeswoman said that the removal is part of a “corrective action” to “deal with abuse”.
A number of experts believe that the main goal of the Indian side is to combat Chinese influence. Even the developed IT sector within the country cannot withstand Chinese hegemony. So, 44 of the 100 most popular Android applications in the country are Chinese apps. Moreover, Chinese companies Alibaba and Tencent are investing in Indian developers, gaining leverage over them. And a new step by the Indian government was the statement that the money of Chinese investors will be subject to additional checks.
It is worth to mention that recently, there was a battle between TikTok and YouTube video platforms. The Chinese social media is breaking records continuously and this isn’t pleasing YouTube fans. In a new advancement, TikTok & YouTube users are giving 1-star reviews to each other’s app in the Play Store. Everything started with YouTube’s controversial decision of deleting the viral video of the Indian Carry Minati’s “YouTube vs TikTok – The end”. In it, he roasted the Chinese social media.