Google has joined Apple in promising to investigate a Saudi government app hosted on the Google Play Store and Apple's App Store.

Business Insider's sister website INSIDER investigated Absher, finding it to be a benign-seeming app to manage day-to-day tasks but also a place where men decide where women are allowed to travel.

Google says it will review the app to determine whether it is in line with its policies, according to a New York Times report on Wednesday. Apple CEO Tim Cook also recently pledged to investigate.

Rep. Katherine Clark, the vice chair of the House Democratic Caucus, on Wednesday called the app a "patriarchal weapon." Other US politicians also called on Apple and Google to ax the app.

Apple and Google have not responded to INSIDER's repeated requests for comment.

Google has joined Apple in promising to investigate a Saudi app that lets men control women's travel, as pressure from rights groups and international lawmakers builds on the tech giants.

Google will review the app to determine whether it violates its policies, a spokesman told The New York Times on Wednesday. Earlier, Apple CEO Tim Cook pledged to investigate as well.

"A Google spokesman confirmed that the company is assessing the app to determine if it is in accordance with its policies," The Times reported.

Google and Apple have failed to respond to repeated requests for comment from Business Insider.

Business Insider's sister website INSIDER revealed details about Absher earlier this month and published criticism from human-rights groups, which triggered US politicians to call on the tech giants to rethink the app.

#DropTheAPP

Numerous high-profile US politicians condemned Apple and Google on Wednesday. They called on the tech giants to kill the service from their app stores.

"Absher is a patriarchal weapon: it allows Saudi men to track women, restrict their travel, and enable human rights violations," the Democratic Party Caucus's vice chair, Rep. Katherine Clark of Massachusetts, tweeted.

Rep. Katherine Clark addressing Congress. C-SPAN/YouTube

"#Apple and #Google must stop facilitating this dangerous tool of control," she added.

Rep. Carolyn Maloney of New York also tweeted: "An app available on Google/Apple's App store helps Saudi Arabia enforce its guardianship system that doesn't allow women to travel without permission from a male guardian. No company should help w/ oppression of women!"

Maloney also encouraged the hashtag "#DropTheAPP."

On Tuesday, Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon wrote to Cook and Google CEO Sundar Pichai demanding that they "immediately remove" Absher from the App Store and Google Play.

The app "flies in the face of the type of society you both claim to support and defend," Wyden wrote. "American companies should not enable or facilitate the Saudi government's patriarchy," he said, calling the Saudi system of control over women "abhorrent."

On this Absher form, guardians can say where women have permission to go, how long for, and which airports they can use. Absher

Before Wyden wrote to the CEOs, the two tech companies faced challenges from Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and the women's-rights activist Yasmine Mohammed.

"Apps like this one can facilitate human rights abuses, including discrimination against women," Rothna Begum, a Middle East researcher for Human Rights Watch, said.

Read more: Q&A: The hurdles and obstacles Saudi women runaways face

"There's a definite tragedy in the world's most technologically progressive platforms, Apple and Google, facilitating the most archaic misogyny," Yasmine Mohammed, an activist who campaigns and writes on women's rights, said.

European and Australian lawmakers pile on

Lawmakers outside the US chimed in as well, with Dutch MP Kees Verhoeven tweeting: "Apple and Google offer the Saudi government app Absher, which limits the freedom of women to travel." He added it was right for Amnesty and Human Rights Watch to "call the tech giants to reconsider offering them!"

Sen. Eric Abetz of Australia published a detailed press release condemning Google and Apple for hosting the app. "This app is being used as a tool of oppression and to restrict the free movement of people in Saudi Arabia," the release said.

Read more: Saudi Arabia runs a huge, sinister online database of women that men use to track them and stop them from running away

The UK government's Foreign and Commonwealth Office would not condemn the app directly but said it wanted to see an end to the guardianship system in Saudi Arabia, which the app encourages.

A page on Absher where a guardian can see which permissions are active and easily change them if needed. Absher

"We continue to call for an end to the guardianship system to allow women to fully participate in Saudi society," a representative of the office said.



Addressing the specific travel function on Absher, Renate Künast, the chairwoman of Germany's Alliance '90/The Greens party, tweeted: "Why do @Apple & @Google condone this? @GoogleDE Are you campaigning against it?"

Her ministerial colleague Tabea Rößner tweeted: "Don't be evil! -Experience shows, however, companies that are concerned with maximizing profits have no conscience."

Concerning the app's travel-permissions function, Nate Schenkkan, the director for special research at the human-rights group Freedom House, tweeted that "technology can be used to reinforce oppressive social structures."

The Saudi Interior Ministry, who made the app, have responded to the wave of negative media coverage, criticizing attempts to "politicize" the issue. Here's the full statement released on January 17:

The Saudi Press Agency wrote on January 17: "An official source at Interior Ministry said, in a repose of what is being circulated about the application of services (Absher), that these allegations aim to disable the benefits of more than 160 different procedural services to all members of the society provided by the Government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabian to the citizens and residents, including women, the elderly, and people with special needs."

"The Ministry strongly condemns the systematic campaign aimed at questioning the purpose of (Abshar) services, which is provided on smart phones to facilitate the services to its beneficiaries."

"The Ministry of Interior at the same time confirms its rejection of the attempts to politicize the systematic use of technical instruments which represent legitimate rights to the users, and its keenness to protect the interests of the beneficiaries of its services."

The app raises awkward questions for Apple and Google, two of the biggest players in Silicon Valley, where tech firms have well-established links to Saudi Arabia.

Both firms hosted Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman last year. The crown prince got a rare tour inside the $5 billion Apple Park campus, in California, which included face time with Cook and other top executives.

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