Let´s Keep Android Open!
Pirates have consistently chosen Android over Apple because it is opensource and free. You buy the phone, so you should be able to decide what apps run on it. You should be able to tinker with it, as you wish. Unfortunately, Google’s new developer verification rules will change that. Starting in September 2026 (just a few months away from now), apps from outside the Play Store will be blocked unless the developer has registered with Google, agreed to its terms, paid fees, and handed over their identity documents. We are raising a big red flag. We must stop this regulation from advancing.
Link to global petition: https://keepandroidopen.org/
Google presents this as a security move, but obviously the big corporation has capitalistic motives. This policy will hurt independent developers, open-source projects, privacy tools, and ordinary users. A phone should not become something you only partly control after you paid for it.
Our colleagues at the European Pirates (PPEU) in their recent blog have emphasized these concerns: https://europeanpirates.eu/european-pirate-partys-stance-on-googles-android-developer-verification-requirement/
They highlight the need for “free software and the open ecosystem,” “civil liberties and the right to privacy,” and “competition law under the Digital Markets Act.”
In their 14 page position paper on this issue, PPEU argues that this is not just a security update. It would make F-Droid and similar opensource projects difficult or impossible to operate. PPEU frames the issue as a Digital Markets Act problem. Specifically, they highlight how this may breach Article 6(4) of that act, which requires that third-party apps and app stores are allowed and not just Google. They are calling on the European Commission to investigate.
<ADD Screenshot of PPEU position paper>
However, this is not just a European problem, it is a global one.
Android is used by billions of people. This decision will affect people far beyond Europe. Google has become richer and more powerful than many individual nations. Most of us live in countries without a supranational entity that can fight back, and we must speak up now as global activists!
Android’s openness is worth protecting. Once that freedom is gone, it may not come back.
Martti Randmaa member of the Estonian Pirate Party added:
“If this were really about keeping users safe, harmful apps wouldn’t appear in their app store in the first place. Blocking people from installing apps on their own phones feels unfair and limits their control over devices they own. Technology should work for everyone, not be controlled by a few private companies.”
Anja Hirschel, the German Pirate Party’s lead candidate for the 2024 European elections, said on the matter:
“We call on politicians to handle digital freedom responsibly as a fundamental part of our democracy and to protect it consistently. It is dishonest to stir up artificial societal debates in order to expand surveillance powers.”
Keith Goldstein, international coordinator of the Israeli Pirate Party and Chairperson of Pirate Parties International adds:
“This crackdown by Google is aimed at restricting the free and open internet, which is very important for all of us involved in the Pirate movement. We develop independent tools, often without any funding or goals to make profits. Android’s openness allowed us access to provide these tools, which Apple did not, and therefore we embraced it. Once Google decides who may develop and distribute software, we no longer truly own our own devices. We call on Google to withdraw this policy and let innovators share software freely. This is not a matter that nations can solve on their own. We need a global response.”
