Dragonfly FM, once China’s ‘podcast king’, pulled from app stores with 66 other apps for data abuse and pop-ups
- A Chinese ministry ordered app stores to remove one of the country’s biggest audio content platforms backed by Xiaomi and Baidu
- Another 210 apps were warned about their data practices as China prepares to enforce new laws protecting data security and personal information
Dragonfly FM, one of China’s biggest podcast platforms with 130 million monthly active users, was one of 67 apps recently removed from app stores at the behest of regulators.
The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in a statement on Wednesday that the apps failed to fix issues such as asking users for too many device permissions and harassing them with pop-up notifications, even after being warned to amend such behaviour.
The national ministry was responsible for removing eight of the 67 apps, with provincial bureaus forcing the removal of the other 59.
The latest app clean-up campaign is part of a broader crackdown on data abuse in China, where the national government is preparing to implement its new Data Security Law next week and the Personal Information Protection Law (PIPL) in November.
Other apps booted from stores include the gaming app Lan Yue Zhi Zun, ride-hailing platform WS eCar and auto industry news app Quiche Toutiao, which were accused of “illegally collecting user information” and “illegally using user information”.
Other offences include apps frequently restarting and “forcing users to accept targeted alerts”.
