Chrome Extension Suspended After Years of Development

[Ecom Stats]

Hello Chromium Extensions Community,

I’m seeking help and guidance regarding the suspension of our Chrome extension and developer account.

Google Chrome Web Store has suspended our extension and permanently disabled our developer account, stating that it was involved in malicious activity. However, we have thoroughly reviewed our complete extension code and Chrome Web Store policies, and we have not identified anything malicious or any intentional policy violation.

Our extension has been available since 2021, and we have invested years of hard work, time, and dedication into developing it and gaining the trust of our users. To the best of our knowledge, we have never received complaints regarding malicious behavior.

We genuinely believe our extension has been falsely flagged. We have contacted Chrome Web Store Support multiple times, but they have informed us that our account will not be reinstated without providing specific details about the alleged violation.

Extension ID:
fkjngjgmgbfelejhbjblhjkehchifpcj

This situation has been extremely difficult for us because of the years of effort we have put into building our extension and earning our users’ trust.

Please, if anyone in this community can guide us or help us understand how we can resolve this issue and request reinstatement, we would be sincerely grateful. We are willing to review and address any genuine concerns and simply request a fair opportunity for our extension to be properly reviewed.

We kindly ask experienced developers or anyone familiar with Chrome Web Store policies and appeals to share any advice or possible next steps.

Thank you so much for your time, support, and guidance.

[Evander Gian]

I'm also facing the same issue.

[Oliver Dunk]

Hi,

Malware is considered a non-rectifiable type of abuse in the Chrome Web Store, and we don't share additional details about the reason for a takedown.

Given that, there is unfortunately nothing we can do to help via this mailing list.

You have done the right thing by contacting Chrome Web Store support, but given that hasn't resulted in a change in the decision, it sounds unlikely that opening further cases will make a difference.

Oliver Dunk | DevRel, Chrome Extensions | https://developer.chrome.com/ | London, GB

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[Ecom Stats]

Hello Oliver,

There is no malware in our extension, and it has not been flagged as malware. The issue is being classified as a Content Policy violation, even though we have not violated any policies to our knowledge. Google removed the extension again without any warning.

We have worked extremely hard to build a trusted user base of 100K+ users. It is unfair to falsely flag and remove an extension without providing clear clarification or an opportunity to rectify the issue.

The Chrome ecosystem is becoming increasingly challenging for developers.

I kindly request that you ask the team to reinstate our extension and developer account. If any issues need to be addressed, we are fully willing to rectify them.

[Oliver Dunk]

Your publisher was suspended for malicious activity, which you acknowledged in your first email.

As documented on https://developer.chrome.com/docs/webstore/review-process#malware:

To limit the potential for these developers to further harm users, the Chrome Web Store team intentionally does not provide details regarding these violations. Additionally, in more severe cases the developer's Chrome Web Store account will be permanently suspended.

There isn't anything further we can do on this mailing list to help I'm afraid. If you wish to continue the discussion, you must use your case with the support team. 

Oliver Dunk | DevRel, Chrome Extensions | https://developer.chrome.com/ | London, GB

[Ecom Stats]

Yes, but as you mentioned, the issue is not classified as malware. Even if it were considered malicious, we have not engaged in any malicious activity or violated any content policies. We have thoroughly reviewed our code.

We have put tremendous effort into developing the extension and building a trusted user base. However, Google has removed it without warning, seemingly based on a few lines of code that may have resulted in a false positive.

I sincerely request your help in reinstating our developer account and extension. Our extension is genuine, and we are willing to address any legitimate concerns.

[Michael Hackman]

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/d/msgid/chromium-extensions/d276c1ae-e344-491a-adf6-b70c02c6b573n%40chromium.org.

[Oliver Dunk]

This isn't a good forum to speculate on the specifics of the takedown. I'm afraid I'm not able to help any further.

Oliver Dunk | DevRel, Chrome Extensions | https://developer.chrome.com/ | London, GB

[Ecom Stats]

Thanks. This clearly shows that Chrome is no longer a safe space for developers who have invested years of hard work.

[Toan Le Van]

Oliver, why can’t developers be told the specific reason for a malware block?

As we’ve seen, these blocks turn out to be false positives quite often. It happened to me, and we’ve seen similar cases with Blockify and YouTube Enhancer. If you tell the developer which code or behavior triggered the detection, they can explain it or fix it instead of just guessing.

And how can we know an appeal is actually being reviewed? In my case, I didn’t see any movement until I started posting on this forum.

[Ecom Stats]

Google seems to be able to remove extensions from smaller developers more easily. Big extensions involved in affiliate fraud, or extensions removed for malware-related issues, manages to return to the Web Store. However, extensions from smaller developers like us often don’t get the same opportunity because we don’t have the same level of access or influence, even when the extension is legitimate and has only been removed due to a false positive.

At the very least, Google should provide a warning before removing an extension so that developers have an opportunity to identify and resolve the issue