Everyone's favourite redhead

Any apps installed on Android will have to:

Pay a fee to Google

Agree to Google's terms and conditions

Provide ID Verification

This is the next step to a completely corporation-controlled internet, because here's what this entails:

A lot of passion and personal projects will die because the developer cannot pay google - and you know this will become a subscription one day. A lot of Open Source innovation will die, which is exactly the point - these kinds of projects keep the internet open and transparent.

Google will be able to control what content you install by choice - anything that goes against their corporate interests, and they can just say nope. And make it completely uninstallable on every mobile phone in the world. This applies to any app being developed, even if it isn't using any google services or tooling. This will no doubt be used for content restriction, something that historically has gone really well.

Google (and by extension, the government) will know exactly who is responsible for developing any app being run on android, even if it isn't distributed through their own store. In a world that is going increasingly towards surveillance, this is an incredibly concerning step.

People all over the world will, once again, be forced to send their sensitive documents to a company and take a gamble that they will keep it safe. Which, judging by what has occured in the past, is a gamble we really should not be taking.

Companies such as Discord have, in the past and in recent events, been pressured to take back their privacy-invasive rules due to public pressure. It is now time to force Google to do the same.

So what can you do?

Post on social media. Let people know of Google's insane plan so that we can get more outrage and dissent on this issue

If you are a developer, writer, content creator - let your audience know what is happening. You can check out Keep Android Open for resources to help you do that.

Use Open Source tooling. Check out F-Droid, which is an open app store with a lot of incredible apps that don't have the resources to deal with Google's bullshit.

Check out some Open Source applications. Some of the incredible apps I use on a daily basis are Newpipe, Outertune, timeto.me, ente, QRAlarm, and Notesnook.

Let Google know you absolutely do not approve of this initiative