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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
World
Rebecca Ratcliffe South-east Asia correspondent

Malaysian government’s ‘gay conversion’ app pulled by Google Play

An app produced by the Malaysian government promoting gay conversion therapy has been removed from the Google Play store.
An app produced by the Malaysian government promoting gay conversion therapy has been removed from the Google Play store. Photograph: Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto/REX/Shutterstock

An app produced by the Malaysian government that promised to help the LGBTI community “return to nature” has been removed from the Google Play store, after it was found to be in breach of the platform’s guidelines.

The app was first released in July 2016, but attracted fresh attention after it was shared on Twitter by the Malaysian government’s Islamic development department. It claimed the app would enable LGBTI people to return to a state of nature or purity, and that it included an e-book detailing the experience of a gay man who “abandoned homosexual behaviour” during Ramadan.

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