We monitor 175 App Store storefronts to answer one question —

Is NaukNauk: Bring Fandom to Life censored by Apple?

Yes.

Apple does not offer NaukNauk: Bring Fandom to Life in 18 of the 175 App Stores it operates, including mainland China. 1.76B people cannot install it. It has been unavailable in mainland China since Sep 2, 2026.

92 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 itPossible

    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

    • 23% of Entertainment apps are unavailable in DR Congo — 128 of 558 — against 13% of everything we test there.
    • Apple reports 196 government-ordered removals in mainland China for 2025, naming none of them.
  • Apple applied a rule, unaskedPossible

    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

    • 23% of Entertainment apps are unavailable in DR Congo — 128 of 558 — against 13% of everything we test there.
  • The developer withheld itPossible

    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.

    • 23% of Entertainment apps are unavailable in DR Congo — 128 of 558 — against 13% of everything we test there.
  • Something brokePossible

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

    • 23% of Entertainment apps are unavailable in DR Congo — 128 of 558 — against 13% of everything we test there.
    • Gone only 16 days.
  • 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 →

NaukNauk: Bring Fandom to Life

Developer: Naukit LLC · Category: Entertainment · Released: May 7, 2025 · Rating: 3.1★

View in App Store ↗
26stores where available
18stores where blocked
1.76Bpeople behind the block
44of 175 stores tested
92tests on record

Other Entertainment apps missing from mainland China

Everything missing from mainland China →

Life of this app

  1. May 7, 2025Released on the App Store
  2. Sep 2, 2026First tested by AppleCensorship
  3. Sep 2, 2026Gone from 18 storefronts
  4. Sep 18, 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.

2026-092026-09

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
AngolaAOUnavailableSep 2, 20262 days ago
BeninBJUnavailableSep 2, 20262 days ago
BotswanaBWUnavailableSep 2, 20262 days ago
Burkina FasoBFUnavailableSep 2, 20262 days ago
CameroonCMUnavailableSep 2, 20262 days ago
Cape VerdeCVUnavailableSep 2, 20262 days ago
ChadTDUnavailableSep 2, 20262 days ago
China (Mainland)CNUnavailableSep 2, 20262 days ago
Côte d’IvoireCIUnavailableSep 2, 20262 days ago
DR CongoCDUnavailableSep 2, 20262 days ago
EswatiniSZUnavailableSep 2, 20262 days ago
GabonGAUnavailableSep 2, 20262 days ago
GambiaGMUnavailableSep 2, 20262 days ago
GhanaGHUnavailableSep 2, 20262 days ago
Guinea-BissauGWUnavailableSep 2, 202617 days ago
KenyaKEUnavailableSep 18, 20262 days ago
MadagascarMGUnavailableSep 18, 20262 days ago
Republic of the CongoCGUnavailableSep 2, 20262 days ago
BermudaBMAvailable17 days ago
Bosnia & HerzegovinaBAAvailable2 days ago
British Virgin IslandsVGAvailable17 days ago
ChileCLAvailable2 days ago
CroatiaHRAvailable2 days ago
CzechiaCZAvailable17 days ago
FijiFJAvailable17 days ago
GreeceGRAvailable2 days ago
IcelandISAvailable2 days ago
IrelandIEAvailable2 days ago
KosovoXKAvailable2 days ago
LuxembourgLUAvailable2 days ago
MalaysiaMYAvailable2 days ago
MaltaMTAvailable2 days ago
MicronesiaFMAvailable2 days ago
MontenegroMEAvailable2 days ago
NicaraguaNIAvailable17 days ago
NorwayNOAvailable2 days ago
RussiaRUAvailable17 days ago
SerbiaRSAvailable2 days ago
Solomon IslandsSBAvailable2 days ago
SpainESAvailable2 days ago
ThailandTHAvailable2 days ago
Turks & Caicos IslandsTCAvailable17 days ago
United StatesUSAvailable2 days ago
VanuatuVUAvailable2 days ago
AfghanistanAFNot tested0
AlbaniaALNot tested0
AlgeriaDZNot tested0
AnguillaAINot tested0
Antigua & BarbudaAGNot tested0
ArgentinaARNot tested0
ArmeniaAMNot tested0
AustraliaAUNot tested0
AustriaATNot tested0
AzerbaijanAZNot tested0
BahamasBSNot tested0
BahrainBHNot tested0
BarbadosBBNot tested0
BelarusBYNot tested0
BelgiumBENot tested0
BelizeBZNot tested0
BhutanBTNot tested0
BoliviaBONot tested0
BrazilBRNot tested0
BruneiBNNot tested0
BulgariaBGNot tested0
CambodiaKHNot tested0
CanadaCANot tested0
Cayman IslandsKYNot tested0
ColombiaCONot tested0
Costa RicaCRNot tested0
CyprusCYNot tested0
DenmarkDKNot tested0
DominicaDMNot tested0
Dominican RepublicDONot tested0
EcuadorECNot tested0
EgyptEGNot tested0
El SalvadorSVNot tested0
EstoniaEENot tested0
FinlandFINot tested0
FranceFRNot tested0
GeorgiaGENot tested0
GermanyDENot tested0
GrenadaGDNot tested0
GuatemalaGTNot tested0
GuyanaGYNot tested0
HondurasHNNot tested0
Hong KongHKNot tested0
HungaryHUNot tested0
IndiaINNot tested0
IndonesiaIDNot tested0
IraqIQNot tested0
IsraelILNot tested0
ItalyITNot tested0
JamaicaJMNot tested0
JapanJPNot tested0
JordanJONot tested0
KazakhstanKZNot tested0
KuwaitKWNot tested0
KyrgyzstanKGNot tested0
LaosLANot tested0
LatviaLVNot tested0
LebanonLBNot tested0
LiberiaLRNot tested0
LibyaLYNot tested0
LithuaniaLTNot tested0
MacaoMONot tested0
MalawiMWNot tested0
MaldivesMVNot tested0
MaliMLNot tested0
MauritaniaMRNot tested0
MauritiusMUNot tested0
MexicoMXNot tested0
MoldovaMDNot tested0
MongoliaMNNot tested0
MontserratMSNot tested0
MoroccoMANot tested0
MozambiqueMZNot tested0
Myanmar (Burma)MMNot tested0
NamibiaNANot tested0
NauruNRNot tested0
NepalNPNot tested0
NetherlandsNLNot tested0
New ZealandNZNot tested0
NigerNENot tested0
NigeriaNGNot tested0
North MacedoniaMKNot tested0
OmanOMNot tested0
PakistanPKNot tested0
PalauPWNot tested0
PanamaPANot tested0
Papua New GuineaPGNot tested0
ParaguayPYNot tested0
PeruPENot tested0
PhilippinesPHNot tested0
PolandPLNot tested0
PortugalPTNot tested0
QatarQANot tested0
RomaniaRONot tested0
RwandaRWNot tested0
São Tomé & PríncipeSTNot tested0
Saudi ArabiaSANot tested0
SenegalSNNot tested0
SeychellesSCNot tested0
Sierra LeoneSLNot tested0
SingaporeSGNot tested0
SlovakiaSKNot tested0
SloveniaSINot tested0
South AfricaZANot tested0
South KoreaKRNot tested0
Sri LankaLKNot tested0
St. Kitts & NevisKNNot tested0
St. LuciaLCNot tested0
St. Vincent & GrenadinesVCNot tested0
SurinameSRNot tested0
SwedenSENot tested0
SwitzerlandCHNot tested0
TaiwanTWNot tested0
TajikistanTJNot tested0
TanzaniaTZNot tested0
TongaTONot tested0
Trinidad & TobagoTTNot tested0
TunisiaTNNot tested0
TürkiyeTRNot tested0
TurkmenistanTMNot tested0
UgandaUGNot tested0
UkraineUANot tested0
United Arab EmiratesAENot tested0
United KingdomGBNot tested0
UruguayUYNot tested0
UzbekistanUZNot tested0
VenezuelaVENot tested0
VietnamVNNot tested0
YemenYENot tested0
ZambiaZMNot tested0
ZimbabweZWNot tested0

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.