Google lifts one week ban on MetaMask

By Robert Stevens

The Google Play Store yesterday removed a ban on the popular extension that provides Ethereum users with a browser interface. MetaMask, which has 260,000 monthly users, had been taken off the store by Google late last month. 

In a tweet on New Year’s Day, MetaMask wrote that, “Upon careful consideration, Google has permitted The MetaMask mobile app back on the Google Play (Android) store!”  

Google told MetaMask at the time of the ban that it forbids mining on mobile platforms; a service MetaMask says it doesn’t offer. 

MetaMask had cast doubt on Google’s decision to excommunicate it from the get go. “[Google] cited their policy that bans mining on mobile, which we don't [offer],” they tweeted on December 26.

But its appeal to the ban was rejected, and Google cited the same policy: Google Play Store doesn’t allow mining apps. “It's unclear whether the reviewer doesn't understand the policy, or whether they are enforcing an unwritten policy,” wrote the MetaMask team.

This isn’t the first time Google has removed MetaMask without warning. In July 2018, Google delisted the service from the Chrome Web Store. (It’s since back in action).

Google’s about-turn on MetaMask comes less than a week after its decision to reverse a ban on crypto-related YouTube sites. YouTubers, who speak of the “crypto blackout”, briefly had their feeds cut off by Google, which removed hundreds of crypto news videos from the site. 

A YouTube spokesperson told Decrypt, “These removals were made in error. The team is in the process of reinstating all videos that erroneously had videos affected by the same root cause."

On top of that, Apple is pressuring Coinbase to remove its dapp browser from its Coinbase Wallet app. Does every tech giant have it out for crypto? Either way, it's the necessary communication that’s lacking.

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