Pinduoduo has responded to being labeled as malware and removed from the Google Play Store.
In an email to Reuters, a Pinduoduo spokesperson said, “Google Play notified us this morning that the Pinduoduo app was temporarily suspended because the current version does not comply with Google’s policies, but did not disclose further details.”
Pinduoduo stated in the email that Google’s statement was not definitive and that Google had also suspended other apps, not just Pinduoduo. However, Pinduoduo did not provide further details.
Some analysts pointed out that Pinduoduo’s response “seemingly said nothing” in the face of Google Play’s detection and removal measures.
Earlier, a Google spokesperson said in a statement, “We have enforced non-play versions of this application through Google Play Protect, which have been found to contain malware. The play version of this app has been suspended for security reasons.”