Google bows down to pressure from NGO

Acting on letters from Delhi-based Centre for Social Welfare (CSR) asking them to pull down sexually explicit content from its Android platform Play Store, Google has ensured to remove objectionable apps and games from their app store and has stronger vigilance for future uploads. Earlier, Google sent a letter to the NGO stating that the content would be removed if found inappropriate.
The Asian Age, in its June 2 edition, had reported that an online petition accusing the Internet giant of allowing sexually-explicit content was filed by the NGO.
“With just 1,673 signatures on Change.org, we were able to get in touch with Google. A few letters were exchanged with their India and US office based in California, leading to them to act upon our request to remove sexually explicit apps and games from their app store,” CSR head of media and communication division, Amitabh Kumar told this newspaper.
He added, “We have been checking Play Store quite regularly and now if somebody checks Play Store, they can see that 95 per cent of the sexually-explicit apps and games have been removed.
This is indeed a big achievement.”
A letter from Google clearly states, “Google is willing to engage with you in your endeavours. Given that each app has a dedicated page on the Google Play platform, we would request you to provide the specific URLs identifying the specific apps on the platform, that you may have identified as containing the impugned content.”
The letter further states that once the specific URLs of the content have been intimated through the “reporting mechanism”, the Google Play teams would initiate a process wherein the content is reviewed, and appropriate action is taken as per product specific policies and applicable laws.