Google has removed the Boycat app from its Play Store on March 27, citing misinformation concerns. The app, which remains available in all 175 Apple’s App Stores, positions itself as an ethical shopping companion, allowing users to make informed decisions based on the ethical implications of their purchases.

Empowering Ethical Shopping

According to the app description page, Boycat’s mission is to transform the way users shop by providing detailed insights into the ethical practices of companies. With features like a barcode scanner to reveal a product’s ethical status and a community-driven platform for submitting and voting on ethical alternatives, Boycat aims to promote conscious consumerism. The app’s latest feature, Zoomies, extends this mission to dining and shopping venues, encouraging users to support or boycott businesses based on their ethical standings.

Suspension Amidst Controversy

In a tweet reporting the suspension of Boycat and urging a boycott to support Palestine, Boycat’s owners called for public support to reinstate the app in the Google Play Store. Google’s decision was reportedly based on a specific message within the app, which claimed that Caterpillar D9 bulldozers were specifically designed for the IDF, and were used in the demolition of Palestinian homes. This message, deemed not compliant by Google, prompted the suspension, despite Boycat providing sources to substantiate its claims.

GreatFire’s AppCensorship project Director, Benjamin Ismail, stated: “Once again, Google assumes the role of arbiter of truth within the Play Store ecosystem—a role it is ill-suited to hold— and fails to demonstrate that the information provided by Boycat was indeed misleading, or that it was deliberately so. If the app has indeed violated legal statutes, then it should be the jurisdiction of the courts to decide its compliance. Should it not breach any laws, Google ought to abstain from unilateral actions driven by political biases.”

A Pattern of Censorship

This incident is not Google’s first foray into censoring apps related to boycott movements. In November 2023, an app called NoThanks was temporarily suspended for its description’s reference to the Israel-Hamas conflict, demonstrating Google’s tendency towards arbitrary and expedited measures without offering justification or transparency for its actions.

Broader Implications

The removal of Boycat from the Google Play Store raises significant questions about the balance between combating misinformation and preserving freedom of speech, especially within digital platforms that have become central to public discourse. As digital storefronts like Google’s Play Store wield considerable power over what apps can reach consumers, their decisions on censorship and app removals have far-reaching implications for developers, users, and the broader movement for ethical consumption and political activism.

“The removal of Boycat from the Google Play Store highlights a pivotal challenge: that tech companies should not be the arbiters of deciding when to uphold or restrict freedom of information and expression within crucial digital platforms,” said Ismail.

“Given the immense influence platforms like Google’s Play Store exert on app accessibility, their practices of censorship and app removals carry significant consequences not just for developers and users, but also for movements dedicated to ethical consumption and political activism. This situation highlights the urgent need for lawmakers to enact regulations preventing tech giants like Google and Apple from restricting information freedom based on their own sets of rules and interests.”

To address the critical need for more transparency and oversight in Google’s Play Store, we have initiated the development of the “Play Store Monitor (PSM)” to track app availability and censorship on Google’s platform, complementing our existing efforts with the AppleCensorship project. We are planning to launch the GoogleCensorship website around September this year, aiming to illuminate the practices of mobile app stores further. This will be followed by the introduction of the AppCensorship.org website, uniting both platforms’ monitoring efforts into a single, user-friendly resource.