Google appeared to eliminate nearly 100,000 negative reviews for the Robinhood app after outraged investors bombarded the start of trading shares with complaints.
Amateur retailers have urged each other online to leave negative reviews for the app in the Google Play Store after Robinhood froze trading on GameStop shares and other shares whose prices exploded this week.
The campaign seemed to work – Robinhood’s Android app had a one-star rating based on nearly 275,000 reviews on Thursday, according to a screenshot captured by 9to5Google.
But that number had dropped to just over 176,000 by noon on Friday, as Google appears to be eliminating bad reviews, bringing the Robinhood rating back to about four stars.
Google said it eliminates reviews under policies that prohibit users from manipulating an app’s average star rating. The titanium technician says that there are long-term systems to detect abuse of the examination system, including coordinated or inorganic reviews, regardless of their content.
The company confirmed to The Verge and Gizmodo that it had removed some Robinhood reviews, but a Google spokesman’s response to an investigation in The Post did not specifically mention the app.
Google has said that developers cannot remove reviews of their apps on their own, and are prohibited by Play Store policies from attempting to influence their app ratings.
None of this has prevented angry users from Robinhood from giving up one-star reviews for the app on Friday, even after the company eased restrictions on GameStop and other actions. Some pointed out that Google was overseeing negative comments.
“It would give zero stars, except apparently that Google removed a lot of 1-star reviews,” one person wrote, giving Robinhood a two-star rating. “I have deactivated my account and will never use it again.”