Went to publish my first app and got terminated on first review. Lifetime ban without an explanation

[Ai_Does]

Spent the past 7 months learning here from scratch. Made my app that uses AI to help students with their homework. No ads, no data collection, nothing shady at all. It was a sincere attempt at doing something new and interesting. Read the rules. Made sure to use no 3rd party content, made images with AI and Illustrator. The only 3rd party thing there is Google’s own free font.

Took weeks to go through all the checklists and review by google. One day I woke up to see that review was done and I was good to go

Took this photo to share the good news with a buddy.

Didn’t even touch the account yet and less than an hour later I got an email about account termination. Skipping right past all the other stages like rejection or suspension, I got termination.
According to Google’s own policy (Enforcement Process - Play Console Help) there are several stages before termination, which I never even saw. Was never given a chance to fix anything.
And it started unfolding into a cruel nightmare. The termination email provides no detail and only says “prior violations” which points to Google thinking that I am someone who was already banned and trying to publish again. I know it’s my first app, I just learned how to make them.

How would one go about proving to be here for the first time? How to prove that you are not a donkey? Especially prove something to someone who isn’t actually listening:

Email said “contact support” if you have questions and provided a link. Great! Only the link brings me right back to the termination notice, not any kind of support. Ok, not to worry, I will contact support through the site. Oh, only to do so you need developer ID which is taken away from you when the account gets terminated. Some discussions online recommend writing to google play support. I did. Got “I’m sorry but you have reached Google Play and we have expertise in apps & purchase only.”

There was one more link to troubleshooter Contact Google Play about an account termination, app removal, or suspension - Play Console Help Here, if you click “my account was terminated please help”, you get “too bad for you, sucker” and provides no option to speak to a person, just says to appeal.

The appeal went as you would expect: got " We can confirm that we have identified a pattern of high risk or abuse associated with your Developer Account and have taken this action pursuant to Section 8.3 or 10.3 of Google Play’s Developer Distribution Agreement. As we previously explained, in order to prevent bad-faith developers from gaming our systems and putting our users at risk in the process, we can’t share the reasons we’ve concluded that your account is at high risk." Which means anything and nothing at the same time.

Section 8.3 says that if I am a scammer or lying about collecting data, I will get banned. Fair. 10.3 just says that google reserves the right to terminate accounts. Still don’t seem like anything I could learn from. And most imprtantly, appearantly I dont deserve a fair trial or even a hint of a human interaction. Life time ban sprinkled with " Please do not attempt to register a new developer account. Any new accounts will be closed, and your developer registration fee will not be refunded."

Dear community, what is going on? does anyone have an answer or a recommendation? I haven’t slep in a while, going crazy, I’ve spent so much effort and time on it. This is so unjust, actually makes me sick

[Taifun]

@Ai_Does

Made my app that uses AI to help students with their homework

You might want to explain more in detail, what your app was about… also what about adding some screenshots?

Taifun

[Ai_Does]

Hey. It’s just using chatGPT to explain terms, assist with writing tasks, answer questions etc. Doesn’t break Google’s rules, I checked it thoroughly with a group of people + there are now hundreds of app like that. I don’t think that app screenshot would be relevant, but here we are

What is actually important to note is that I collect no data, there were no ads in the app, no sus permissions. It is a very clean app.

I had plenty of time to research the problem, have been going through a real rollercoaster of events and emotions. They never gave me a chance to explain myself, never asked follow-up questions, skipped right past suspensions and warnings directly to life-time ban. Cited “prior violations” all of the above, with a ton of research leaves me almost 100% confident that Google thinks that I am someone who was already banned and now trying to get back in. I don’t think it’s possible to prove or disprove something like that, but they didn’t even ask for any proof.

In emails, they keep mentioning a fight against bad actors and gaming the system.

I know I am doing this for the first time, it’s my first app. I know I wasn’t banned on Google before. So, how did google got that stupid idea? I have versions:

1. Something a stupid as IP? My provider only does dynamic IP, this means I’m always logging in from new IP address, ok shady but can’t be that uncommon. How could google not know that it is a thing? Or could I share Ip with someone who was banned?
2. Is it Kodular? Couuld bad actors abuse Kodular so much that now everyone who comes from here is subject to scrutiny? Even then, I should be in a clear, as I haven’t broken any rules.
3. Something I don’t like to consider but have to. I am Russian, registered from Cambodia. Also sus, but we don’t chose where we are born. With just a minute of human interaction or a few questions this could be cleared up as well. I will truly lose hope in humanity, if Google also decided to punish me for something I never had a choice in.
4. Could it be all of the above? A very unfortunate combination of factors that are seen as a red flag?

Got this idea about 7 months ago, came here and started learning. By the time I was done, there were already a ton of app just like it. But now this, no hope for explanation or justice, just a life-time ban.

If it was a technical issue, they would give me a warning, I think. Since the punishment is so harsh, it excludes small misconduct. They must think that I am someone else.

I read a lot of discussions and articles on this in the past few days and there is a lot of very disappointed people who fought very hard to appeal unjust termination and they all failed. Because Google is a soulless machine with a soulless algorithm. The only time an actual human spoke to me in this whole event was when he basically wrote “it’s done, it’s forever, go away”.

At this point, I know that there is nothing I can do about it. I gave them my passport, so any future attempts in android development by myself are also futile. Now it is just a tale for the community about something that happens.

[Ai_Does]

Was replying to you there but something went wrong

[vknow360 (Sunny Gupta)]

Check if there is any legal law in favor of you. Something like RTI (Right to Information) which would force them to provide you a short explanation at least.

[Kanishka_Developer (Kanishka Chakraborty)]

Google’s lack of transparency is really demoralizing. I’m afraid I don’t really have any tips for you, just writing to show my support. I hope you get justice… Your app looks great, especially considering it’s your first app. Keep us posted through the process. All the best!

[Xoma (Kumaraswamy)]

@Kanishka_Developer

Google’s lack of transparency is really demoralizing.

Google does not respect the developers who publish apps on their platform. I had witnessed such an event not so long ago, often when these things happen, unfortunately it’s 95% likely you are not gonna get back your app appear on Play store anytime soon. (Or you may if you are lucky enough.) Google has been ridiculously suspending and terminating a lot of apps recently for extremely ridiculous reasons. I know a person who had spent years together building an app which got taken down due to silly reasons (such as wrong translations, that’s what the Google team thinks so). All hope was lost, after extreme efforts and months pressure from the developer community, half a year later they agreed to bring back the app. Unless you are a big tech giant or have a massive community support, you really cannot do anything.

You may not want to hear this, but there’s nothing you can do other than moving on. (Let’s hope that I’m wrong).

There’s a strong need for alternatives to break the monopolized app market.

[bidder_boons]

My suggestion for uploading apps to Google Play is not from a personal account,

Buy a domain,
Connect to Google Workspace,
Create a developer account using that Google account.
Upload apps.

Unfortunately from November,2023. You need a DUNS number to create a DEVELOPER ACCOUNT as Organisation which can be obtained for FREE but to obtain DUNS number it takes 45-60 days (India)

[Ai_Does]

Funny you should say that. I wouldn’t even consider this usually. But considering the effort spent, I did go to a lawyer with this idea. And he said that it works if you are in a country where that matters. Americans or Europeans could fight it, and probably wouldn’t end up in this spot in the first place. But Cambodia doesn’t have a law like that and for sure wouldn’t be able to enforce it on google even if they tried. It’s great advise, but is also salt to my wounds as a reminder of how there is no justice in sight

[Ai_Does]

appreciate you, buddy

[Ai_Does]

yep, I don’t like it, but it is also true. I came to this conclusion as well, all the cases that I came across failed to appeal. It’s like world’s worst version of facecontrol

[Ai_Does]

Aha! Yeah, and that I thought of too. I could register a business and try again. But the “we will terminate any future account” part is in the way. I gave them my passport, silly me. I would spend a thousand dollars on registering a company, and if they terminate me and ban the company, I will just be left with another thousand dollar bill to close the company It’s going to take a lot of time for me to build up courage for this lol

[bidder_boons]

@Ai_Does

thousand dollars on registering a company

Nothing is needed except a domain ,

It’s your choice

[Ai_Does]

Oh, I didn’t understand it properly the first time. Thank you! I will look into it for sure