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I can’t say I’m a mobile app developer, but early during Covid19 (late Dec/2019 and early Jan/2020) and out of self learning process, I made a fully functioning

by AHOHA 3y ago

I can’t say I’m a mobile app developer, but early during Covid19 (late Dec/2019 and early Jan/2020) and out of self learning process, I made a fully functioning android app that provided a real time tracking for Covid cases around the world, the first of its kind (1) with other stats, I submitted the app in Jan/2020 to the play store, and after almost a whole month of “pending”, I got banned, the app got “suspended” not just rejected -as if I did something illegal-, my account got flagged and they said another flag and they will suspend my google account too, keep in mind it was fully free with no ads of any sort, so no monetization of any sorts except donations. It turned out later google (and other big tech incl twitter) were trying to suppress anything about covid, until the narrative shifted March that year. Moral of the story: as a developer, you are always under the mercy of these app stores, and they can change policies anytime, with zero regulations to govern them. Other open source stores are good as long as you are opening your source code, if you won’t for whatever reason, good luck distributing apk/updating your users, and I’m not even looking at apple yet. (1) https://files.catbox.moe/byur9j.png https://files.catbox.moe/byur9j.png

dendriti 3y ago
Wow, that sounds awful. Any proof?
- AHOHA 3y ago
  Proof it was suspended you mean? Sure, this is the email (1) I got after almost a month, as you can see the policy violation being "sensitive event" . And also this is their reply (2) after I tried to appeal it, since I wasn't doing anything wrong basically, the reply was just a repeat of that email with extra salt that we might suspend the whole account. P.S. While digging in the email, I also remembered I submitted it to Amazon store, and while it was accepted, but few days later they deleted it for similar policy. Twitter too, as I made a small bot that report the cases and tweet it in Jan/2020, they suspended my account _ I can try to find the screenshots of that too if you like- and blocked the tracker website from even being posted in a tweet, but later that year gave my account back.. (1) https://files.catbox.moe/lqjw8s.png https://files.catbox.moe/lqjw8s.png (2) https://files.catbox.moe/84vme2.png https://files.catbox.moe/84vme2.png
musicale 3y ago
> It turned out later google (and other big tech incl twitter) were trying to suspress anything about covid, until the narrative shifted March that year That's very interesting. Has this been confirmed from internal sources? What was the motivation behind it?
veec_cas_tant 3y ago
> It turned out later google (and other big tech incl twitter) were trying to suppress anything about covid, until the narrative shifted March that year From the emails you posted, it seems like big tech sites had general policies about people capitalizing on disaster situations and they spelled that out clearly? Obviously, things eventually changed and Covid19 apps/trackers were deemed to not fall under that rule, but it seems a bit much to jump from that to "trying to suppress anything about covid". For reference, text from one of the emails: >Specifically, we don't allow apps that lack reasonable sensitivity towards or capitalize on a natural disaster, atrocity, conflict, death, or other tragic event.
- sam_lowry_ 3y ago
  OP says the app was not monetized, so this rule seems to be irrelevant.
- hulitu 3y ago
  > >Specifically, we don't allow apps that lack reasonable sensitivity towards or capitalize on a natural disaster, atrocity, conflict, death, or other tragic event. Haha. Facebook, Twitter ? Even youtube capitalises from "a natural disaster, atrocity, conflict, death, or other tragic event". Talk about hipocrisy.
- AHOHA 3y ago
  Agree with you, but here are some points to consider: - The app didn’t capitalize or monetize out of that event, it was just like any news app (in fact, that time news apps had ads too), except it’s a niche news, about covid. - When I submitted the app, that policy didn’t exist I remember going through their policies, I guess during that month of “pending”, they were processing if they would allow such apps or not, as I am sure other submitted similar ones, keep in mind it was too early for big tech to digest the fast paced infos whether to allow or disallow it, you can notice even the app name (nCov- corona) and not (Covid19) as the name wasn’t even given to the virus by WHO yet, so immediately banning and suspending apps with no concrete policy in place gives you an idea how things works, ban first, then discuss later and even after discussing things won’t change. Bottom line: Having too much power such app stores to a single private company is wrong, apple is worse in that department as you can’t even side load your apps yet (planned in next iOS release I believe), it’s not the case for webapps for example with all the flexibility you have as a developer.
pkphilip 3y ago
Not surprised

by AHOHA 3y ago

dendriti 3y ago

Wow, that sounds awful. Any proof?

AHOHA 3y ago
Proof it was suspended you mean? Sure, this is the email (1) I got after almost a month, as you can see the policy violation being "sensitive event" . And also this is their reply (2) after I tried to appeal it, since I wasn't doing anything wrong basically, the reply was just a repeat of that email with extra salt that we might suspend the whole account. P.S. While digging in the email, I also remembered I submitted it to Amazon store, and while it was accepted, but few days later they deleted it for similar policy. Twitter too, as I made a small bot that report the cases and tweet it in Jan/2020, they suspended my account _ I can try to find the screenshots of that too if you like- and blocked the tracker website from even being posted in a tweet, but later that year gave my account back.. (1) https://files.catbox.moe/lqjw8s.png https://files.catbox.moe/lqjw8s.png (2) https://files.catbox.moe/84vme2.png https://files.catbox.moe/84vme2.png

musicale 3y ago

> It turned out later google (and other big tech incl twitter) were trying to suspress anything about covid, until the narrative shifted March that year That's very interesting. Has this been confirmed from internal sources? What was the motivation behind it?

veec_cas_tant 3y ago

> It turned out later google (and other big tech incl twitter) were trying to suppress anything about covid, until the narrative shifted March that year From the emails you posted, it seems like big tech sites had general policies about people capitalizing on disaster situations and they spelled that out clearly? Obviously, things eventually changed and Covid19 apps/trackers were deemed to not fall under that rule, but it seems a bit much to jump from that to "trying to suppress anything about covid". For reference, text from one of the emails: >Specifically, we don't allow apps that lack reasonable sensitivity towards or capitalize on a natural disaster, atrocity, conflict, death, or other tragic event.

sam_lowry_ 3y ago
OP says the app was not monetized, so this rule seems to be irrelevant.
hulitu 3y ago
> >Specifically, we don't allow apps that lack reasonable sensitivity towards or capitalize on a natural disaster, atrocity, conflict, death, or other tragic event. Haha. Facebook, Twitter ? Even youtube capitalises from "a natural disaster, atrocity, conflict, death, or other tragic event". Talk about hipocrisy.
AHOHA 3y ago
Agree with you, but here are some points to consider: - The app didn’t capitalize or monetize out of that event, it was just like any news app (in fact, that time news apps had ads too), except it’s a niche news, about covid. - When I submitted the app, that policy didn’t exist I remember going through their policies, I guess during that month of “pending”, they were processing if they would allow such apps or not, as I am sure other submitted similar ones, keep in mind it was too early for big tech to digest the fast paced infos whether to allow or disallow it, you can notice even the app name (nCov- corona) and not (Covid19) as the name wasn’t even given to the virus by WHO yet, so immediately banning and suspending apps with no concrete policy in place gives you an idea how things works, ban first, then discuss later and even after discussing things won’t change. Bottom line: Having too much power such app stores to a single private company is wrong, apple is worse in that department as you can’t even side load your apps yet (planned in next iOS release I believe), it’s not the case for webapps for example with all the flexibility you have as a developer.

pkphilip 3y ago

Not surprised