After Amazon, Microsoft, And Apple, Google Refuses To Ban A “Conversion Therapy” App

After three tech giants including Amazon, Microsoft, and Apple banned an app called “conversion therapy”, Google decides to do the opposite: The company refuses to ban the app.

The app’s developers came from Living Hope Ministries, a Christian group in the United State. Up to now, the app which shares the name of this group in the App Store has gained over 1,000 downloads.

Critics point out that the app aims to instruct users to “pray away the gay”, as well as advise the young who are allegedly LGBTQ to look for a way to live as a heterosexual one by combining prayer with therapy.

On the Change.org website, a petition was held to call for users to remove the app and it has now collected more than 140,000 signatures. According to a report from the Human Rights Campaign’s representative, the app is depicted as a “life-threatening” tool to LGBTQ youth.

Axios revealed that Sundar Pichai as the CEO of Google has received letters from “several major LGBTQ rights groups” with a hope that the tech giant would hold a meeting concerning the hate app but their efforts didn’t reach success.

Google didn’t give any comment on this issue with Axios. In addition, the company wasn’t ready to comment as a request from Business Insider.

Due to its refusal to ban the app developed by Living Hope Ministries, Google has recently given some statements and actions relating to LGBTQ issues, leading to unnecessary pressure it has faced.

Four years ago, in 2015, it publicly supported the Equality Act which was a proposed bill to fight against discrimination for LGBTQ ones in the United States.

In addition to the app mentioned above, Google has recently received a lot of criticism because it didn’t pull another app from its app store. The name of this app was Absher which the Saudi government developed to help men follow and monitor women’s positions.