Google has removed the ‘Remove China Apps’ app, which had been trending in India, from iPlay Store.

The app has been removed for violating Google Play Store’s Deceptive Behaviour Policy, TechCrunch reported.

According to this policy, any app on the Google Play Store cannot make changes to a user’s device or device settings without the user’s consent. Under this policy, Google does not allow “Apps that encourage or incentivise users into removing or disabling third-party apps or modifying device settings or features unless it is part of a verifiable security service.”

The Remove China Apps app, developed by OneTouch AppLabs, enabled users to easily detect apps that were made in China and delete them. The app had garnered massive popularity amid anti-China sentiment in the country, garnering over 5 million downloads within days of its launch.

It was part of the #BoycottMadeinChina campaign, which has also been trending on Twitter, with over 1.25-lakh tweets since Saturday morning. It all began when innovator Sonam Wangchuk, inspiration for the character of Phunsuk Wangdu in the film 3 Idiots, urged people to shun Made in China products, in a YouTube video on Saturday. This was in response to Chinese aggression along the Ladakh border over the past few weeks.

“Give up all Chinese software in a week, all Chinese hardware in a year,” Wangchuk had said.

This had led users to delete apps that were made by China-based companies from their phones, which catapulted the Remove China Apps app to the top free app on Google’s Play Store earlier this week.

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