Google Suspends China's Shopping App Pinduoduo Due To Security Issues

(RTTNews) - Alphabet Inc.'s (GOOG) Google has suspended Pinduoduo, a Chinese shopping app, from its Play Store due to security reasons after malware issues were found in versions of the app.

"Off-Play versions of this app that have been found to contain malware have been enforced on via Google Play Protect," the company said in a statement. "We have suspended the Play version of the app for security concerns while we continue our investigation."

"Google Play Protect enforcement has been set to block installation attempts of these identified malicious apps. Users that have malicious versions of the app downloaded to their devices are warned and prompted to uninstall the app," the company said.

Google Play Protect scans Android devices with Google Play Services for potentially harmful apps and works to prevent the installation of malicious apps.

Pinduoduo said it was informed by Google Play on Tuesday morning that its app had been "temporarily suspended" because the current version is "not compliant with Google's Policy." It said Google Play did not share more details.

Pinduoduo is one of China's most popular e-commerce platforms, with about 900 million users.