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Google brings down the banhammer on app developer for producing fake clicks (Updated)
July 30, 2025
The full statement can be found below:
Original article: Friday, June 23, 2025 at 5:29 p.m. ET:Popular Chinese developer DO Global is in hot water today afterGooglebanned many of its apps from theGoogle Play Storeover ad fraud and user permission abuses, reportedBuzzFeed News.
According to the report, 46 apps out of DO Global’s roughly 100 apps have been taken down. An unnamed source toldBuzzFeed Newsthat more app removals will follow, with Google moving to ban DO Global from the Play Store altogether.
Android Authorityreached out to Google for comment, with a spokesperson issuing the following statement:
The ban followsan investigationconducted byBuzzFeed Newsand security researchers atCheck Point Research. According to the investigation’s findings, at least six of DO Global’s apps included code for fraudulent ad-clicking. The fake clicks then produced ad revenue for DO Global and even worked if you kept the app closed.
Compounding matters, DO Global supposedly published apps under generic developer names “Pic Tools Group” and “Photo Artist Studio,” hosted the apps’ privacy policies on Tumblr, and didn’t disclose to users that the apps under the aforementioned developer names were from DO Global.
Prior to today’s ban, DO Global’s apps garnered over 600 million installs. DO Global toldBuzzFeed Newsthat the company has over 250 million monthly active app users and reaches 800 million users through its ad platform.
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