Google Terminated My Google Play Console Account Without Clear Reasons or Warning
I received my Android Developer Career Lifetime Ban award from Google after I tried to support freedom of speech for the people of Myanmar.
I couldn’t find many places to share my story, so I recently decided to sign up on Medium and share it here. I’ve been feeling exhausted and deeply depressed.
Please allow me to share my recent experience: the termination of my Google Developer account.
The Google Play Console team terminated my new developer account instantly, without any prior notice or app suspension emails, while we were publishing a VPN app called Geek VPN (org.geekvpn.client) to production.
This is going to be a bit of a long story, as I want to share everything from beginning to end. I’ll try to keep it as brief as possible, and I appreciate you taking the time to read it.
Let me start by introducing myself. I’m from Myanmar (Burma), a country currently under the control of a Military Junta, and I’m now residing in Japan.
A few months ago, the Myanmar Military Junta began banning popular VPN apps. Their primary goal is to suppress freedom of speech by preventing access to social media platforms like Facebook, which is widely used by the people of Myanmar. Since Facebook is already banned, many rely on VPNs to access it. There are only a few VPNs left that can still be used. For more context, you can search Google using the keywords “Myanmar Junta is banning VPNs”. You’ll find plenty of news reports covering this.
Then, my developer friend, who is currently living in Myanmar, and I decided to tackle this issue to support freedom of speech by developing a VPN app called Geek VPN.
App Implementation: In early July, we started developing this VPN app based on the open-source V2RayNG app, which is currently available on the Play Store. We implemented a function that periodically updates VPN server resources in our backend so that the Junta can’t easily identify and block our VPN servers. We used a mechanism to send these updated VPN server data from our backend to the client app, making it harder for the Junta to ban our app by blocking the API domain. The Geek VPN app updates VPN server data once per day. The app is free to use, and we integrated AdMob to support its long-term maintenance. I believe this is an essential service for the people of Myanmar. By the end of July, the app was almost ready.
Time to Distribute: We created a Google Play Console account (Global Geek Tech). I used my Myanmar passport, my Japan address, and my Japanese residence ID (as proof of address) to verify identification and set up a Google Payment Profile with my JCB card, which was used to pay for this account. We passed all these verification steps. Then, we published our app to the Closed Testing Track, as Google requires a 14-day closed testing period with a minimum of 20 testers. After four days in review, our app passed the app review step.
Our Geek VPN app successfully passed the review process when we initially published it to the closed testing track, and the pre-launch report indicated no significant issues.
We also made and submitted updates three times during the 14-day closed testing period without any problems.
Time to Find Testers for Our App: Honestly, it was easy for us, as this is an essential service for our people. We simply explained the app in a small private Facebook group and invited members to join if they wanted. Over 70 users eagerly joined the closed test within a few hours. The 14-day closed testing phase was successfully completed.
Time to Publish Our App to Production: We clicked “Apply to Production,” answered all the questions that Google asked, and after two days, production access for our app was granted. We published our app to the production track and waited for their response. After two days, on the morning of Aug 23, I woke up and checked my email, expecting to see a notification that our app had been published to production. Instead, I saw “Your Account was Terminated.” We didn’t receive any prior emails like “Your app was rejected or suspended” before this termination email. It was just an instant termination that I didn’t expect.
I felt like, “What??”
But even though it was frustrating, I was still confident we could resolve this issue quickly. So, we tried to send an appeal — the only option available in such cases.
How Our Appeal Process Went: We sent three appeals.
First Appeal (Aug 23): Although we thought this was likely a system error, we tried to identify what we might have done wrong. We found that our app name, Geek VPN (org.geekvpn.client), partially matched the name of an unrelated app (https://apkpure.com/p/com.geektools.vpn.free) that appears to be banned from the Play Store, as I couldn’t find it on the Play Store.
- We explained that we are not associated with this unrelated app (com.geektools.vpn.free) and offered to share our source code.
- We also considered the possibility of account association issues, so we explained that we didn’t have any connection to any previously terminated accounts. We offered to provide any relevant documents, such as ID, proof of address, etc.
- We explained why we needed to publish this app.
They replied that they had received our appeal, and on Aug 26, 2024, they rejected our appeal with the following message:
Hi developers at Global Geek Tech,
Thanks for your patience.
After reviewing your appeal, we’re unable to reinstate your Google Play Developer account.
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. 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.
Your Developer account remains terminated due to prior violations of the Developer Program Policies and Developer Distribution Agreement by this or associated, previously terminated Google Play Developer accounts.
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.
Second Appeal (Aug 26): At this point, we were starting to feel very stressed. We posted about our issue on the Official Google Play Console Help Forum and asked for recommendations or suggestions. One of the Product Experts responded, saying that suspicious activities within our app could lead to this outcome. So, in our second appeal, we explained the app’s functionalities in detail. As a standard VPN app, there’s not much to explain. Our app contains just two screens: a main screen with “Connect” and “Add Time” buttons and a server listing screen labeled “Choose Server.” However, we explained our app thoroughly. They replied that they had received our appeal, and on Aug 29, 2024, it was rejected again. See below:
Thanks for your patience.
We’ve reviewed your appeal again and can confirm a pattern of high risk or abuse associated with your Developer Account.
Third Appeal (Aug 29): By now, we were totally stressed out and had headaches, but we knew we needed to find out what mistakenly caused this severe termination. It seems Google’s AI mistakenly flagged our account as being associated with a previously terminated account. We sent our third and final appeal with the following details:
- Related Activities That Could Have Caused the Termination: Two individuals have access to this account, and we are confident that neither of us has had any previous accounts terminated. This is our first and only account. We access it using multiple devices, including a MacBook, iPhone, and Android devices, and we are certain that none of these devices have ever been associated with any terminated accounts.
- VPN Use in Myanmar: One of our team members, who is currently living in Myanmar and responsible for publishing our Geek VPN app to the Play Store, had to use a VPN while accessing Google services and publishing the app bundle. This was necessary due to unstable internet traffic caused by the Myanmar military junta, which has made it difficult to use online services.
- We reiterated that we are not associated with the app (com.geektools.vpn.free).
- Our Google AdMob application was recently rejected. This may be because our app is not yet publicly available on the Play Store.
We also respectfully requested that a human review our case thoroughly, rather than relying solely on AI-generated results. We provided my Myanmar passport, Japanese residence ID card, JCB card, and Firebase screenshots showing user engagement. We also requested that they inform us of any policies our app might have violated, instead of immediately terminating our entire developer account without any prior notice.
You can check my full third appeal here.
After one day, on Aug 30, 2024, they simply replied with the following:
Thanks for the reply.
As much as I’d like to help, I’m not able to provide any more detail or a better answer to your question. In our previous email, I made sure to include all the information available to me. To protect our system and users, we can’t share the reasons we’ve concluded that your account is at high risk.
Note that Google Play Developer account terminations are associated with developers, and may span multiple account registrations and related Google services. Do not attempt to register a new developer account. Any new accounts will be closed and your developer registration fee will not be refunded. We recommend that you use an alternative method for distributing your apps in the future.
Thank you for your understanding.
It seems they didn’t even review the information we provided — they just ignored us.
I think what we did wrong in this case was needing to use a VPN while accessing Google services. My friend in Myanmar took on the responsibility of publishing the app since he has more experience, and we didn’t think that this would trigger such a severe termination decision. However, we already explained this in our appeal.
Isn’t it Google’s job to identify what may have wrongly triggered this kind of decision based on the information we provided? We know Google’s detection AI is powerful in such cases, but it’s still just a machine. Machines can make wrong decisions. Isn’t this the reason for the appeal system’s existence?
When I explored their official Play Console Help Community, it suggested explaining any association with previously terminated accounts. But without having any association with such accounts, what could we explain? Isn’t it also their task to identify which factor might have wrongly triggered this kind of association link?
I understand that Google manages a vast number of apps and developers to keep their platform safe, and I appreciate this effort.
But I don’t think developers deserve this kind of treatment.
Now, all of our hard work has been undone overnight by a single click or bot’s decision.
We are stuck and can’t find a way to resolve this issue. According to Google’s policy, terminating my account means blacklisting me on Google Play, so I can’t create any new accounts. Buying an account from a seller is also not appropriate.
Thank you for reading this long post. I really appreciate it.
If you have had a similar experience, I want to say, “I’m deeply sorry to hear that”. I know how frustrating and stressful this situation is.
Thank you, everyone.
GeekDuDu
Global Geek Tech
New Information I Discovered:
Someone on Reddit pointed out a recent policy announcement that I wasn’t aware of: Google no longer allows personal developers to publish VPN apps. Google Play Policy.
Honestly, I didn’t know this policy had come out. It seems my Geek VPN app may have violated this or another policy, but it wasn’t intentional. I agree that we must follow Google’s policies and ensure our apps comply with them. However, I still believe Google should have issued a warning first, such as an email stating, “Your app is rejected or suspended” and specifying the violated policy. This would give developers a chance to learn from their mistakes and improve.
Instantly terminating my developer account without any warning for an unintentional mistake feels excessively harsh.
