Google makes the unexpected decision to delete a heavily downloaded app from the Play Store

Downloader has been pulled from the Google Play Store. Popular with Android TV owners, the app made it possible to download files from various sites.

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As reported by the Digital Distribution Service, the service was suspended after a complaint was filed by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). The complaint states that the application allows downloading from pirated sources.

App Downloader has been downloaded 5 million times

This AFTVnews website application uses a browser along with a file manager. It had already been downloaded more than 5 million times on the Play Store as of the day it was suspended. Several Israeli TV stations have accused Downloader of allowing them to download the Sdarot platform.

Sderot is a very popular website in Israel, but it is notorious for copyright infringement in the country. This is because it acts as a free platform for streaming local and international streaming content and TV series, subtitled in Hebrew. The developer of Downloader said that the site can be accessed through any Internet browser, including Google Chrome itself.

Developer defense

Elias Saba, who is in charge of developing Downloader, commented the following to AFTVnews:

“Any reasonable person would agree that you can’t blame a web browser for pirated content on the Internet, but that’s exactly what happened to my app,” he says.
It even says that Downloader never directs to any specific site other than its own. So Saba filed an appeal against Google’s action as soon as it became aware of the suspension. In less than an hour, the first operation was rejected.

Since it does not have the means to know how to appeal the decision, the developer has asked its users for help. That is, all people who have used Downloader.