Google Blacklists Hong Kong Protest Game for ‘Capitalizing on Sensitive Events’

Tech giant Google has reportedly blacklisted a pro-Hong Kong protester game from its Android app store claiming that it is “capitalizing on sensitive events.”

The Wall Street Journal reports that Google has removed a pro-Hong Kong protestor game called “The Revolution of Our Times” from its Android Play Store. Fellow tech giant Apple recently came under fire for blacklisting an app from its own app store that allowed people to track protests and police activity in Hong Kong.

The game appears to be a very basic “choose your own adventure” style text game where the story of a Hong Kong protestor is told as users make choices and decisions throughout the game. A Google spokesperson told the WSJ that a Play Store policy bans apps or games that are seen to be “capitalizing on sensitive events such as attempting to make money from serious ongoing conflicts or tragedies through a game.”

The game was free but did offer in-app purchases ranging in price between $0.99 and $14.99 according to the games cached Google Play Store page. The app was downloaded over 1,000 times before being removed according to the cached page.

Apple has also come under fire for removing a pro-Hong Kong app. The firm once again blacklisted the HKmap.live app that tracked police presence and protest activity in Hong Kong from its app store. The company has flip-flopped repeatedly on whether the app should be allowed in the store, initially telling developers: “Your app contains content – or facilitates, enables, and encourages an activity – that is not legal … specifically, the app allowed users to evade law enforcement,” and banning the app.

Following outcry over the initial banning, the app was reinstated to Apple’s store. Now, following criticism from the Chinese Communist Party’s main newspaper, The People’s Daily, which stated that the app “facilitates illegal behavior,” leading it to question if Apple was “guiding Hong Kong thugs,” The Silicon Valley Masters of the Universe have once against bowed to the wishes of communist China.

Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan or email him at lnolan@breitbart.com