[Onavo]

It's not just the US, story through the grapevine is that Google is under a lot of pressure Asian governments over "online scams".

(Allegedly the main actor behind this push is Singapore)

[Zak]

Singapore is not big enough to dictate terms to Google. If Singapore wanted this change and Google didn't, Singapore's most extreme option would be to ban the import of standard Android phones to a market of a few million people.

[rockskon]

They're free to make changes to Asian country phones and not let the political pressure of Asian countries impact non-Asian countries.

[tosti]

Poor, poor Google