We monitor 217 Google Play storefronts to answer one question —
Is DW - Breaking World News censored by Google?
Google does not offer DW - Breaking World News in 3 of the 217 Google Play countries it operates: Iran, Sudan, and Cuba. 151M people cannot install it. It has been unavailable in Iran since Oct 8, 2025.
384 tests on record·last checked 13 days ago
Why it is unavailable
Five things can put an app out of one Google Play. Each is weighed below against what can be seen from outside — open a card for the reasoning.
A government or a court demanded it
and Google complied. Google publishes a count of these per country each year and never says which apps they were. Google’s Transparency Report
A local rule about paying for it
gambling licences, financial rules, tax — the kind of law that governs a transaction. Google 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.
Google applied a rule, unasked
either its own review guidelines, or its own reading of a local law, with nobody having demanded anything. This is the largest category in Google’s own removal figures by a wide margin, and it covers distribution permits as well as content — Google kept a free Bible app out of mainland China in 2021 for want of one. Google’s Transparency Report
The developer withheld it
freely, or under legal advice of their own, or because Google’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 Google’s own tools: it needs no new version of the app, and it leaves no public trace other than the app being unavailable.
Something broke
a rejected update, a lapsed certificate, a payment or licensing problem, a mistake nobody has got round to noticing.
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 Google’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: Google naming a Chinese agency tells you what Google 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 Google’s catalogue looking identical — and that nobody has ever measured how they divide across Google Play. The one careful study of the question was done on Google's store, using an error message Google does not emit.
Google publishes no record of which apps are unavailable in which countries. Its Transparency Report counts the removal requests governments send it, across its products together, and names no app in any of them — so even the part it does disclose cannot be matched to a single thing missing from your store. Where a reason reaches the public at all, it is usually because a developer chose to say so. Google’s Transparency Report
Know of a statement, notice or order we have missed? Tell us →
DW - Breaking World News
Developer: Deutsche Welle · Released: Feb 20, 2025 · Rating: 2.8★
Life of this app
- Feb 20, 2025Released on Google Play
- Oct 8, 2025Removed in Iran
- Oct 8, 2025Removed in Cuba
- Oct 8, 2025Removed in Sudan
- Oct 8, 2025First tested by GooglePlayCensorship
- Sep 15, 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.
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 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CubaCU↗ | Unavailable | Oct 8, 2025 | 2 months ago | ||
| IranIR↗ | Unavailable | Oct 8, 2025 | 2 months ago | ||
| SudanSD↗ | Unavailable | Oct 8, 2025 | 2 months ago | ||
| AlbaniaAL↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| AlgeriaDZ↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| AngolaAO↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| Antigua & BarbudaAG↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| ArgentinaAR↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| ArmeniaAM↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| ArubaAW↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| AustraliaAU↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| AustriaAT↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| AzerbaijanAZ↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| BahamasBS↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| BahrainBH↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| BangladeshBD↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| BelarusBY↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| BelgiumBE↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| BelizeBZ↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| BeninBJ↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| BermudaBM↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| BoliviaBO↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| Bosnia & HerzegovinaBA↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| BotswanaBW↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| BrazilBR↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| British Virgin IslandsVG↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| BulgariaBG↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| Burkina FasoBF↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| BurundiBI↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| CambodiaKH↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| CameroonCM↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| CanadaCA↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| Cape VerdeCV↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| Cayman IslandsKY↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| ChadTD↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| ChileCL↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| China (Mainland)CN↗ | Available | — | 15 days ago | ||
| ColombiaCO↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| ComorosKM↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| Costa RicaCR↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| Côte d’IvoireCI↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| CroatiaHR↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| CyprusCY↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| CzechiaCZ↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| DenmarkDK↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| DjiboutiDJ↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| DominicaDM↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| Dominican RepublicDO↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| DR CongoCD↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| EcuadorEC↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| EgyptEG↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| El SalvadorSV↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| EritreaER↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| EstoniaEE↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| FijiFJ↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| FinlandFI↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| FranceFR↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| GabonGA↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| GambiaGM↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| GeorgiaGE↗ | Available | — | 12 months ago | ||
| GermanyDE↗ | Available | — | 13 days ago | ||
| GhanaGH↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| GibraltarGI↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| GreeceGR↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| GrenadaGD↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| GuatemalaGT↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| GuineaGN↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| Guinea-BissauGW↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| HaitiHT↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| HondurasHN↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| Hong KongHK↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| HungaryHU↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| IcelandIS↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| IndiaIN↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| IndonesiaID↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| IraqIQ↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| IrelandIE↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| IsraelIL↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| ItalyIT↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| JamaicaJM↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| JapanJP↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| JordanJO↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| KazakhstanKZ↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| KenyaKE↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| KuwaitKW↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| KyrgyzstanKG↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| LaosLA↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| LatviaLV↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| LebanonLB↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| LiberiaLR↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| LibyaLY↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| LiechtensteinLI↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| LithuaniaLT↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| LuxembourgLU↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| MacaoMO↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| MalaysiaMY↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| MaldivesMV↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| MaliML↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| MaltaMT↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| MauritiusMU↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| MexicoMX↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| MicronesiaFM↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| MoldovaMD↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| MonacoMC↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| MoroccoMA↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| MozambiqueMZ↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| Myanmar (Burma)MM↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| NamibiaNA↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| NepalNP↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| NetherlandsNL↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| New ZealandNZ↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| NicaraguaNI↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| NigerNE↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| NigeriaNG↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| North MacedoniaMK↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| NorwayNO↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| OmanOM↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| PakistanPK↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| PanamaPA↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| Papua New GuineaPG↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| ParaguayPY↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| PeruPE↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| PhilippinesPH↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| PolandPL↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| PortugalPT↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| QatarQA↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| Republic of the CongoCG↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| RomaniaRO↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| RussiaRU↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| RwandaRW↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| SamoaWS↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| San MarinoSM↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| Saudi ArabiaSA↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| SenegalSN↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| SerbiaRS↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| SeychellesSC↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| Sierra LeoneSL↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| SingaporeSG↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| SlovakiaSK↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| SloveniaSI↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| Solomon IslandsSB↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| SomaliaSO↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| South AfricaZA↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| South KoreaKR↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| SpainES↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| Sri LankaLK↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| St. Kitts & NevisKN↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| St. LuciaLC↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| SurinameSR↗ | Available | — | 12 months ago | ||
| SwedenSE↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| SwitzerlandCH↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| TaiwanTW↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| TajikistanTJ↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| TanzaniaTZ↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| ThailandTH↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| TogoTG↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| TongaTO↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| Trinidad & TobagoTT↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| TunisiaTN↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| TürkiyeTR↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| TurkmenistanTM↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| Turks & Caicos IslandsTC↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| UgandaUG↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| UkraineUA↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| United Arab EmiratesAE↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| United KingdomGB↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| United StatesUS↗ | Available | — | 13 days ago | ||
| UruguayUY↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| UzbekistanUZ↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| VanuatuVU↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| Vatican CityVA↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| VenezuelaVE↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| VietnamVN↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| YemenYE↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| ZambiaZM↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| ZimbabweZW↗ | Available | — | 2 months ago | ||
| AfghanistanAF↗ | Not tested | — | — | 0 | |
| AndorraAD↗ | Not tested | — | — | 0 | |
| AnguillaAI↗ | Not tested | — | — | 0 | |
| BarbadosBB↗ | Not tested | — | — | 0 | |
| BhutanBT↗ | Not tested | — | — | 0 | |
| BruneiBN↗ | Not tested | — | — | 0 | |
| Caribbean NetherlandsBQ↗ | Not tested | — | — | 0 | |
| Central African RepublicCF↗ | Not tested | — | — | 0 | |
| Christmas IslandCX↗ | Not tested | — | — | 0 | |
| Cocos (Keeling) IslandsCC↗ | Not tested | — | — | 0 | |
| Cook IslandsCK↗ | Not tested | — | — | 0 | |
| CuraçaoCW↗ | Not tested | — | — | 0 | |
| Equatorial GuineaGQ↗ | Not tested | — | — | 0 | |
| EswatiniSZ↗ | Not tested | — | — | 0 | |
| EthiopiaET↗ | Not tested | — | — | 0 | |
| Falkland IslandsFK↗ | Not tested | — | — | 0 | |
| GuernseyGG↗ | Not tested | — | — | 0 | |
| GuyanaGY↗ | Not tested | — | — | 0 | |
| Isle of ManIM↗ | Not tested | — | — | 0 | |
| JerseyJE↗ | Not tested | — | — | 0 | |
| KiribatiKI↗ | Not tested | — | — | 0 | |
| KosovoXK↗ | Not tested | — | — | 0 | |
| LesothoLS↗ | Not tested | — | — | 0 | |
| MadagascarMG↗ | Not tested | — | — | 0 | |
| MalawiMW↗ | Not tested | — | — | 0 | |
| MauritaniaMR↗ | Not tested | — | — | 0 | |
| MongoliaMN↗ | Not tested | — | — | 0 | |
| MontenegroME↗ | Not tested | — | — | 0 | |
| MontserratMS↗ | Not tested | — | — | 0 | |
| NauruNR↗ | Not tested | — | — | 0 | |
| NiueNU↗ | Not tested | — | — | 0 | |
| Norfolk IslandNF↗ | Not tested | — | — | 0 | |
| Palestinian TerritoriesPS↗ | Not tested | — | — | 0 | |
| Pitcairn IslandsPN↗ | Not tested | — | — | 0 | |
| São Tomé & PríncipeST↗ | Not tested | — | — | 0 | |
| St. HelenaSH↗ | Not tested | — | — | 0 | |
| St. Vincent & GrenadinesVC↗ | Not tested | — | — | 0 | |
| Timor-LesteTL↗ | Not tested | — | — | 0 | |
| TokelauTK↗ | Not tested | — | — | 0 | |
| TuvaluTV↗ | Not tested | — | — | 0 | |
| Western SaharaEH↗ | Not tested | — | — | 0 |
Testing asks Google whether it will sell this app in that storefront, right now, by the same method the crawler has used since 2019. Your browser asks Google directly, so the answer describes what Google serves your connection — and if your browser cannot reach Google at all, we ask on your behalf and say so. The result is a link: open it to see Google’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 Google’s own catalog servers for every storefront, the same way Google Play app asks. "Unavailable" means Google’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.