Google temporarily removed Element’s Android chat app from the Play Store this week for allegedly hosting abusive content. The decision is particularly puzzling, given that Element is only a client for the Matrix federated chat protocol and not a service in itself. Meaning that the Element can (and does) moderate its own servers, but has no control over what happens in the network to which users connect.
“[J]Just as Google does not control content on the Web, Element does not control content on the Matrix, ”wrote Element CEO Matthew Hodgson in a blog post published on Saturday.
Google launched Element from its app store on Friday without warning or notice and restored the app late saturday in the evening, Said Element. One Saturday morning tweet, the company said they contacted Google and confirmed that the suspension “is due to abusive content somewhere on the Matrix.” Element developers sent a “detailed appeal” to Google to try to cancel the suspension and it seems to have made a difference.
In a blog update, Hodgson said a Google executive contacted him and apologized for “poor communication” from Google. The suspension was apparently linked to “extremely abusive content” on the default matrix.org server, which Element runs on behalf of the Matrix, which had already been quickly identified and handled by Element moderators.
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“We’ve explained how Element and Matrix work, we’ve established a communication channel for any future moderation concerns, and we expect the app to be restored soon,” Hodgson wrote at the time.
A few hours later, he updated the blog to announce that the application is functional again and thanked the users for their patience.
“We also thank Google for transparency and apologies and for the quick resolution once we made contact,” he said.
But even though the app is back in the Google Store, its sudden demise has undoubtedly led to some headaches for many companies, universities and governments, including the UK, America, France and Germany, which use Element and the Matrix network. . Google has previously suspended a third-party client for uncontrollable content, such as Android Police note. Into the February 2020Google banned the popular Slide for the open source Reddit client for almost two weeks because a screenshot from the app store list contained the text “ISIS”, as shown in a Reddit news post.
Google did not immediately respond to Gizmodo’s request for comment. The Incident with Element it comes after both Google and Apple stumbled Talkthe application following the attack on the Capitol building on January 6 for allegedly hosting violent content.
With this In my mind, it makes sense for Google to have high content moderation issues and is a little unhappy these days. And while this approach may be justified in some cases, remember that not all applications are bad and that some even do their best to combat hateful and violent content.