Google enforces limitations on “Covid-19” related apps for Android: only government approved speech is permitted

Google enforces limitations on “Covid-19” related apps for Android: only government approved speech is permitted

What apps are subject to COVID-19 restrictions?

Apps that are subject to these requirements include, but may not be limited to:

  • Apps that provide medical, treatment, vaccine, testing, or other related information specifically for COVID-19.
  • Apps that support COVID-19-related response, containment, research, or education/training efforts.
  • Apps that support services used to respond specifically to COVID-19, for example, apps that provide social support (food stamps, payment), healthcare, loans, etc., specifically in response to COVID-19.

Note: Only apps in these categories may use, approximate or leverage coronavirus, COVID-19, pandemic or related keywords in their Google Play Store title and/or icon.

Other apps may use COVID-19 related terms in their in-app experience, their app description or app screenshots but not in their title and/or icon. For non-medical related apps, references to COVID-19 are limited to non-health related claims (e.g. opening hours changes, sharing tips on activities to do at home, providing commentary on the economic/social impacts of COVID-19, etc.). These apps may not include health claims (e.g. prevention methods, treatments, vaccines).

Source: Requirements for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) apps – Play Console Help

Basically, Google limits apps to only duplicating official government statements – or official statements of nationally recognized institutions.

In the interest of protecting user safety, only official Governmental apps and the following categories of apps are eligible to use COVID-19 or other related keywords and marketing in their Google Play Store app title and app icon:

  1. Official governmental apps as defined in section (1) above, or

  2. Apps published by, or in direct affiliation with:

    1. a healthcare system or provider (e.g. CVS Health, UK National Health Service, UnitedHealth Group, Kaiser Permanente, French national healthcare system, Netcare (South Africa), One Medical, etc.);

    2. a nationally recognized medical or epidemiological research organization deeply rooted in medical research (including nationally recognized medical schools). (The medical or epidemiological research organization or government research, should have approval from a registered governing body (for example, Institutional Review Board in the US, or the National Health Service (NHS) in the UK). In case of dispute, a local or national government, or verifiable healthcare non-governmental organization (NGO) endorsement will be required.) or; apps directly endorsed by an official government entity.

This would generally be referred to as “censorship”. Only government approved speech about Covid-19 will be permitted.

While we encourage developers to innovate and publish great apps to support users through this pandemic, we need to ensure that COVID-19 apps on the Play Store empower users to make informed choices about how their data is collected and used; protect them from misinformation; and limit sensitive public health functions to authoritative developers. Only specific COVID-19 apps that meet the requirements detailed in this Help Center article will be allowed on the Google Play Store.

Coupled with Facebook restrictions on speech about Covid-19, is anyone worried about where this is going?

Put this in a different context. Researchers just published a peer reviewed paper (this week as a matter of fact) finding that the earth’s climate began warming in the early 19th century ; this is not the first paper to make this finding. This finding goes against the conventional wisdom and statement of the UN IPCC. If Google and Facebook’s had a similar policy on climate “misinformation”, mention of this point would be prohibited by those who are not a government agency or recognized scientific institution doing government approved research.

See any problems with this? Effectively, the government is now controlling speech via proxy of Google and Facebook.

The First Amendment is dead.

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