Google pinned for encouraging tobacco and e-cigarette use

179 organizations from 62 countries called[1] Google to adopt a new policy removing and banning apps that encourage the purchase or use of tobacco and vaping products.

The organizations are criticizing several of the apps currently available in the Google Play Store, including those that provide users with instructions on how to create vaping liquids, as well as apps produced by Altria-Philip Morris that promote coupons for Marlboro cigarettes. The Altria-Philip Morris app allows adult smokers 21 years of age or older who are enrolled in the Marlboro Rewards program to scan and enter coupon codes found on their cigarette packs to earn points. These points can be redeemed for coupons on the app and used at stores listed on the app.

Apple, Amazon, and many other companies have already adopted similar policies that prohibit the promotion of tobacco or vaping products. Following a statement from Apple in November 2019[2] stating that the company would ban and remove apps that promote the use of tobacco and vaping products, nearly 200 related apps have been removed from the Apple Store.

In a letter to Google CEO Sundar Pichai, the groups noted that in recent years, tobacco companies have increasingly used virtual platforms to target young people. In recent months, tobacco and vaping companies have exploited the COVID-19 crisis to market their products and promote special offers and online delivery apps for their products. Philip Morris International and British American Tobacco have flooded Instagram and Facebook with ads for cigarettes like Marlboro and Lucky Strike and heated tobacco products like IQOS and Glo.

According to Matthew L. Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, these apps encourage the purchase of tobacco and vaping products and represent a loophole in current tobacco and vaping control regulations in the United States.

Keywords: Google, Applications, Youth, Smoking