Acting on letters from Delhi-based Centre for Social Welfare (CSR) asking them to pull down sexually explicit content on its Android platform Playstore, Google is acting upon the request to remove objectionable apps and games from their app store and also have a stronger vigilance for future uploads. Earlier, Google sent a letter to the NGO stating that contents will be removed if found inappropriate.
This newspaper, 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 Playstore quite regularly and now if somebody checks Playstore, 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.”