The Mitron app has now been pulled from the Google Play Store
The app was violating the policy of the platform
The source code of the app was bought from a Pakistani software development company
As India moves towards more ‘Made in India’ apps and services, there’s one app that has garnered a lot of attention in the past few days. The Mitron app, which was billed as a local alternative to TikTok was championed as an app that was Made in India. But, as these things go, the app was found to have been a rebranded version of a similar app from developers in Pakistan. Things went from bad to worse as the Google Play Store has now taken off the app for violating the stores ‘spam and minimum functionality’ policy.
After the app hit Indian shores, there were many that praised it for being a locally developed app, but that truth was crushed under the fact that the source code for the application was purchased from Qboxus, a Pakistani software development company. It cost the developers a whopping $34 (Rs 2,500 approx). In an interview with News18, Qboxus CEO Irfan Shiek said, “There is no problem with what the developer has done. He paid for the script and used it, which is okay. But, the problem is with people referring to it as an Indian-made app, which is not true especially because they have not made any changes.”
As news of the app spread, questions were put forth regarding the security and privacy of the app. In fact, the developer website leaks to a blank page and there seems to be no privacy policy as well.
Talking about apps being pulled from Google, the ‘Remove China Apps’ application was also taken off the Play Store for violating the platform’s policies. If you’d like to check out apps that have been ‘Made in India’ we suggest checking out the two lists we have here and here.
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