Link to Aarogya Setu app puts Mobikwik in trouble with Google

Citing violation of advertising policy, Google removed the digital payments app, Mobikwik from its Play Store. Mobikwik had promoted Aarogya Setu app on its platform.

The company’s co-founder and CEO, Bipin Preet Singh took to Twitter to raise this issue. The CEO maintained, the decision to promote the app was taken after the banking regulator, Reserve Bank of India, had asked them to do so.

At present, the application is available in the Play Store which stated it was last updated on May 29, 2020. This application has been downloaded by 5 crore users.

Many in social media replied to the Singh, suggesting ways to getting this sorted, or to blame Google for this.

Talking to Entrackr, Singh said that a week ago, Google had warned Mobikwik for promoting Aarogya Setu app on its platform and termed it as deceptive. However, when MobiKwik contacted Google, they said it was a mistake. Meanwhile, Google stated Mobikwik was not compliant with one or more of its developer program policies. For instance, Google doesn’t allow apps that contain deceptive or disruptive ads and those which aren’t clearly labelled.

Aarogya Setu, since its launch, has been made mandatory by many private and all government institutions. It was downloaded by 100 million plus users so far. This application is considered to be useful for contact tracing. It faced opposition over privacy issue and for making it a compulsory application.