tl;dr: It’s a false positive. The headline makes it sound like an intentional classification, but that’s not the case. Also, they fixed the problem two days ago.

Avast itself is malware to me.

Click bait much?

If you think Avast is based, think again. They are some of the most annoying AV software (excluding the pure scams of course).

“When I finish writing this, I will put the markers in the box.”
“A meeting is in progress.”
“I’m sweetening my coffee.”
“My back itches.”
“Somebody is standing behind me.”
“This phone is ringing.”

Internal tests by Balast Inc. did not confirm users’ complaints about too many notifications.