Bhopal: Home Minister warns Google of legal action if loan apps made available in its play store

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): State home minister Narottam Mishra has warned tech giant Google of a legal action against it if it makes unauthorised loan Apps available in its Play store.

A 35-year-old tower mechanic allegedly ended his life after killing his wife and two kids in Indore on Tuesday having failed to repay a loan taken through a loan App, according to police.

Talking to media persons on Friday Home minister said he would like to welcome the decision of Google to remove unauthorised loan applications from its platform. But, he said, if such unauthorised loan Apps were made available on its platform the state government would take legal action against it.

Notably, Google removed over 2,000 loan apps from India Play Store since January this year for violating terms, misrepresenting information, and questionable offline behaviour, a senior official said a couple of days back.

The tech giant also looks to tighten policies in the coming weeks for greater checks in this space, the official said.

Saikat Mitra, Senior Director and Head of Trust and Safety, Google APAC (Asia Pacific region) said the company is committed to complying with regulations in all jurisdictions it operates in, and termed online harm as a "global phenomenon".

Asked about concerns in some quarters, that the digital platforms are not doing enough to curb online harm and are in fact pushing back on new regulations coming in, Mitra asserted that Google's priority and its core values have always been around user safety.

The company believes in having open, multi-party industry dialogues with governments on regulation, he said adding "in our world everything starts with user safety and security".

"We have removed 2000-plus loan apps from India Play Store from January till now," Mitra said, adding the crackdown was based on leads and inputs received, violation of policy, lack of disclosures, and misinformation.

(With input from PTI)