applecensorship

We monitor 175 App Store storefronts to answer one question —

Is American Express Pocket Square censored by Apple?

Gone.

American Express Pocket Square is gone from every App Store storefront we test. It was last seen available on Apr 21, 2022.

120 tests on record·last checked 2 days ago

Why it is unavailable

Five things can put an app out of one App Store. Each is weighed below against what can be seen from outside — open a card for the reasoning.

  • A government or a court demanded itLikely

    and Apple complied. Apple publishes a count of these per country each year and never says which apps they were. Apple's 2025 App Store Transparency Report

  • Apple applied a rule, unaskedLikely

    either its own review guidelines, or its own reading of a local law, with nobody having demanded anything. This is the largest category in Apple's own removal figures by a wide margin, and it covers distribution permits as well as content — Apple kept a free Bible app out of mainland China in 2021 for want of one. Apple's 2025 App Store Transparency Report

  • The developer withheld itUnlikely

    freely, or under legal advice of their own, or because Apple's guidelines require that kind of app to be limited to certain countries. Switching a country off is easy for a developer to do in Apple's own tools: it needs no new version of the app, and it leaves no public trace other than the app being unavailable.

  • Something brokeUnlikely

    a rejected update, a lapsed certificate, a payment or licensing problem, a mistake nobody has got round to noticing.

  • A local rule about paying for itRuled out

    gambling licences, financial rules, tax — the kind of law that governs a transaction. Apple can obey every one of them by refusing the payment, which is why this is the only restriction we would accept and the only one that cannot touch a free app.

    • It is free, so Apple sells nothing here.
How this is weighed, and what it cannot tell you

Weighed from the evidence under each card, not from a model. There is no published figure for how Apple's removals divide up, so these are ordered words rather than percentages. For scale on the same-day counts: across the whole record an app leaves a storefront with fewer than two others, so a dozen at once is not a dozen coincidences.

None of this is certain, and a citation does not make it so: Apple naming a Chinese agency tells you what Apple said, not everything that happened. What can be said is that the readings alone cannot separate these five — a developer switching off a country and a government ordering it removed arrive at Apple's catalogue looking identical — and that nobody has ever measured how they divide across the App Store. The one careful study of the question was done on Google's store, using an error message Apple does not emit.

Apple publishes no record of which apps are unavailable in which of its App Stores. For the removals it makes on a government's demand it publishes the agency and the law behind every one — 2,045 of the 166,899 apps it removed during 2025 — and never which app. Where a reason reaches the public at all, it is usually because a developer chose to say so. Apple's App Store Transparency Report

Know of a statement, notice or order we have missed? Tell us →

American Express Pocket Square

Developer: American Express · Category: Business · Released: Jun 27, 2017 · Rating: 0.5★

View in App Store ↗
0stores where available
29stores where blocked
2.1Bpeople behind the block
29of 175 stores tested
120tests on record

Other Business apps missing from mainland China

Everything missing from mainland China →

Life of this app

  1. Jun 27, 2017Released on the App Store
  2. Apr 21, 2022First tested by AppleCensorship
  3. Apr 21, 2022Last seen available anywhere
  4. Sep 18, 2024Gone from 29 storefronts
  5. Sep 16, 2026Most recent test

Testing history

One column per month, every month from the first reading to the last. Height follows how many readings we took that month; red is the share of them that found the app unavailable. An empty month is one nobody tested.

2022-042026-09

Found availableFound unavailable

Availability by storefront

Every storefront we test, current status first. Data is a measurement, not a promise: each row carries its own date.

Test now
Antigua & BarbudaAGUnavailableJul 27, 20242 years ago
AustraliaAUUnavailableJul 30, 20242 years ago
BahrainBHUnavailableSep 18, 20242 years ago
BelgiumBEUnavailableSep 25, 202512 months ago
CanadaCAUnavailableJul 26, 20247 months ago
ChadTDUnavailableJul 11, 202514 months ago
ChileCLUnavailableDec 1, 20242 years ago
China (Mainland)CNUnavailableJul 26, 202416 months ago
FranceFRUnavailableJul 26, 20244 months ago
GuatemalaGTUnavailableNov 29, 20242 years ago
Guinea-BissauGWUnavailableNov 20, 20242 years ago
HondurasHNUnavailableJul 26, 20242 years ago
JordanJOUnavailableJul 26, 20242 years ago
KosovoXKUnavailableOct 27, 20242 years ago
KuwaitKWUnavailableJan 15, 20252 years ago
LatviaLVUnavailableJul 26, 20242 years ago
MaliMLUnavailableAug 15, 202513 months ago
MontenegroMEUnavailableDec 5, 20259 months ago
NauruNRUnavailableJul 26, 20242 days ago
North MacedoniaMKUnavailableMay 19, 20264 months ago
OmanOMUnavailableMar 13, 20252 years ago
Sierra LeoneSLUnavailableMay 30, 202516 months ago
St. Kitts & NevisKNUnavailableSep 16, 20262 days ago
SwitzerlandCHUnavailableJul 26, 20242 years ago
Trinidad & TobagoTTUnavailableSep 3, 20242 years ago
TunisiaTNUnavailableFeb 22, 20267 months ago
United Arab EmiratesAEUnavailableJul 26, 20242 days ago
United KingdomGBUnavailableJul 26, 20242 days ago
United StatesUSUnavailableJul 26, 20242 days ago
AfghanistanAFNot tested——0
AlbaniaALNot tested——0
AlgeriaDZNot tested——0
AngolaAONot tested——0
AnguillaAINot tested——0
ArgentinaARNot tested——0
ArmeniaAMNot tested——0
AustriaATNot tested——0
AzerbaijanAZNot tested——0
BahamasBSNot tested——0
BarbadosBBNot tested——0
BelarusBYNot tested——0
BelizeBZNot tested——0
BeninBJNot tested——0
BermudaBMNot tested——0
BhutanBTNot tested——0
BoliviaBONot tested——0
Bosnia & HerzegovinaBANot tested——0
BotswanaBWNot tested——0
BrazilBRNot tested——0
British Virgin IslandsVGNot tested——0
BruneiBNNot tested——0
BulgariaBGNot tested——0
Burkina FasoBFNot tested——0
CambodiaKHNot tested——0
CameroonCMNot tested——0
Cape VerdeCVNot tested——0
Cayman IslandsKYNot tested——0
ColombiaCONot tested——0
Costa RicaCRNot tested——0
Côte d’IvoireCINot tested——0
CroatiaHRNot tested——0
CyprusCYNot tested——0
CzechiaCZNot tested——0
DenmarkDKNot tested——0
DominicaDMNot tested——0
Dominican RepublicDONot tested——0
DR CongoCDNot tested——0
EcuadorECNot tested——0
EgyptEGNot tested——0
El SalvadorSVNot tested——0
EstoniaEENot tested——0
EswatiniSZNot tested——0
FijiFJNot tested——0
FinlandFINot tested——0
GabonGANot tested——0
GambiaGMNot tested——0
GeorgiaGENot tested——0
GermanyDENot tested——0
GhanaGHNot tested——0
GreeceGRNot tested——0
GrenadaGDNot tested——0
GuyanaGYNot tested——0
Hong KongHKNot tested——0
HungaryHUNot tested——0
IcelandISNot tested——0
IndiaINNot tested——0
IndonesiaIDNot tested——0
IraqIQNot tested——0
IrelandIENot tested——0
IsraelILNot tested——0
ItalyITNot tested——0
JamaicaJMNot tested——0
JapanJPNot tested——0
KazakhstanKZNot tested——0
KenyaKENot tested——0
KyrgyzstanKGNot tested——0
LaosLANot tested——0
LebanonLBNot tested——0
LiberiaLRNot tested——0
LibyaLYNot tested——0
LithuaniaLTNot tested——0
LuxembourgLUNot tested——0
MacaoMONot tested——0
MadagascarMGNot tested——0
MalawiMWNot tested——0
MalaysiaMYNot tested——0
MaldivesMVNot tested——0
MaltaMTNot tested——0
MauritaniaMRNot tested——0
MauritiusMUNot tested——0
MexicoMXNot tested——0
MicronesiaFMNot tested——0
MoldovaMDNot tested——0
MongoliaMNNot tested——0
MontserratMSNot tested——0
MoroccoMANot tested——0
MozambiqueMZNot tested——0
Myanmar (Burma)MMNot tested——0
NamibiaNANot tested——0
NepalNPNot tested——0
NetherlandsNLNot tested——0
New ZealandNZNot tested——0
NicaraguaNINot tested——0
NigerNENot tested——0
NigeriaNGNot tested——0
NorwayNONot tested——0
PakistanPKNot tested——0
PalauPWNot tested——0
PanamaPANot tested——0
Papua New GuineaPGNot tested——0
ParaguayPYNot tested——0
PeruPENot tested——0
PhilippinesPHNot tested——0
PolandPLNot tested——0
PortugalPTNot tested——0
QatarQANot tested——0
Republic of the CongoCGNot tested——0
RomaniaRONot tested——0
RussiaRUNot tested——0
RwandaRWNot tested——0
São Tomé & PríncipeSTNot tested——0
Saudi ArabiaSANot tested——0
SenegalSNNot tested——0
SerbiaRSNot tested——0
SeychellesSCNot tested——0
SingaporeSGNot tested——0
SlovakiaSKNot tested——0
SloveniaSINot tested——0
Solomon IslandsSBNot tested——0
South AfricaZANot tested——0
South KoreaKRNot tested——0
SpainESNot tested——0
Sri LankaLKNot tested——0
St. LuciaLCNot tested——0
St. Vincent & GrenadinesVCNot tested——0
SurinameSRNot tested——0
SwedenSENot tested——0
TaiwanTWNot tested——0
TajikistanTJNot tested——0
TanzaniaTZNot tested——0
ThailandTHNot tested——0
TongaTONot tested——0
TürkiyeTRNot tested——0
TurkmenistanTMNot tested——0
Turks & Caicos IslandsTCNot tested——0
UgandaUGNot tested——0
UkraineUANot tested——0
UruguayUYNot tested——0
UzbekistanUZNot tested——0
VanuatuVUNot tested——0
VenezuelaVENot tested——0
VietnamVNNot tested——0
YemenYENot tested——0
ZambiaZMNot tested——0
ZimbabweZWNot tested——0

Testing asks Apple whether it will sell this app in that storefront, right now, by the same method the crawler has used since 2019. Your browser asks Apple directly, so the answer describes what Apple serves your connection — and if your browser cannot reach Apple at all, we ask on your behalf and say so. The result is a link: open it to see Apple's own answer and check ours. Readings are added to the record above; roughly a quarter of the readings taken each day come from people testing.

How we test

Availability is checked against Apple's own catalog servers for every storefront, the same way the App Store app asks. "Unavailable" means Apple's servers say the app cannot be offered in that country — it does not say who asked for the removal. Removals initiated by the developer and removals demanded by governments look the same from outside; the history and context on this page are how we tell them apart.