In a bid to curb the spread of misinformation during these trying times, several tech giants banded together earlier this year to provide users with actual, verified facts about the COVID-19 situation and take down any misleading information from their respective platforms. Google, being Google, automated this process and the results have been quite undesirable for some app developers. According to a recent tweet from the developer of popular podcast app Podcast Addict, Google has erroneously suspended the app from the Play Store for hosting podcasts that talk about COVID-19.

In a notification regarding the suspension, Google cites Section 8.3 of its Developer Distribution Agreement which was recently updated to make it more difficult for malicious apps to take advantage of the increasing number of searches about the ongoing pandemic. The updated policy requires developers to prove that their app is either endorsed by a government to publish content related to COVID-19 or take down all references to the pandemic from the app. While updating the policy to limit the spread of fake news is great on Google's part, removing an app for hosting third-party content related to COVID-19 is a bit of an oversight. Because if this is intended behavior, then Google should also remove its own apps, like YouTube and Google News, for hosting third-party COVID-19 content.

Since we've now established that this isn't intended behavior, it's safe to assume that Google's automated review process just spotted mentions of coronavirus in the Podcast Addict app and delivered a false positive, leading to its suspension. And much like the recent Pushbullet and Join Chrome extension fiasco, Google's communication with the developer regarding the issue was less than ideal.

When the developer took to Twitter to highlight the issue, Android's AVP Hiroshi Lockheimer apologized to the developer for the false flag and said that the app shouldn't have been pulled from the Play Store.

The Podcast Addict developer then confirmed that his appeal had been accepted and Google required them to "fix the issue" and submit the app for review once again.

In their latest tweet, the developer revealed that the app has been resubmitted for review without any changes and it seems to be up on the Play Store once again. In case you wish to download the app, you can do so by following the Play Store link below.