Is ExpressVPN: Super Secure VPN censored by Apple?

Why it is unavailable

1. Reported by TechCrunch · 2017-07-29

   Removed in the July 2017 clearance of VPN apps from the China App Store, about which Apple said: "Earlier this year China's MIIT announced that all developers offering VPNs must obtain a license from the government. We have been required to remove some VPN apps in China that do not meet the new regulations." Apple's statement covered the category rather than this app, which was named in the reporting. Apple later told US senators it had removed 674 VPN apps at the Chinese government's request.

   Source:TechCrunch: Apple issues statement regarding removal of unlicensed VPN apps in ChinaApplies to mainland China.

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.

• Apple applied a rule, unaskedOn the record

  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

  • 79% of VPN and proxy apps are unavailable in mainland China — 1,295 of 1,648 — against 28% of everything we test there.
  • 5 other apps left Russia the same day, May 1, 2025.
  • A cited source says so — above.
• 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

  • 79% of VPN and proxy apps are unavailable in mainland China — 1,295 of 1,648 — against 28% of everything we test there.
  • 5 other apps left Russia the same day, May 1, 2025.
  • Apple reports 1,213 government-ordered removals in Russia for 2025, naming none of them.
  • A different cause is cited above.
• 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.

  • 79% of VPN and proxy apps are unavailable in mainland China — 1,295 of 1,648 — against 28% of everything we test there.
  • 5 other apps left Russia the same day, May 1, 2025.
  • A different cause is cited above.
• Something brokeUnlikely

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

  • 79% of VPN and proxy apps are unavailable in mainland China — 1,295 of 1,648 — against 28% of everything we test there.
  • 5 other apps left Russia the same day, May 1, 2025.
  • Gone for 7 years.
  • A different cause is cited above.
• 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.

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