Taliban propaganda app removed from Google Play Store

The Android app was taken down the day after its release

Armed Taliban militants surrender to government forces in Herat, Afghanistan in November 2010 (Majid Saeedi/Getty Images)

The Taliban's mobile app has been removed from the Google Play Store, just a day after it launched.

The Pashto-language app was titled 'Pashto Afghan news - alemarah,' and allowed users to access official statements, videos and other propaganda from the fundamentalist group.

As Bloomberg reports, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahed said the app was part of the group's "advanced technological efforts to make a more global audience."

American jihadist-monitoring organisation Site Intelligence Group spotted the app had been launched on Friday 1 April. It was removed the next day, which Mujahed put down to "technical issues."

However, the BBC reports it was taken down by Google, since it violated the Play Store's rules on violence, illegal activities and hate speech.

The Taliban banned the internet when they controlled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001, declaring it to be un-Islamic. They have since reversed their policy, using multi-lingual websites, digital publications and social media to spread their message internationally.

A Google spokesperson said: "While we don’t comment on specific apps, we can confirm that we remove apps from Google Play that violate our policies.”

“Our policies are designed to provide a great experience for users and developers. That's why we remove apps from Google Play that violate those policies.”