Zero evidence of Xiaomi censorship

Stefan Mileschin · 18th January 2022, 08:51

Germans fling pooh at allegations very precisely

Germany's federal cybersecurity watchdog, the BSI investigated allegations that Xiaomi shipped with onboard censorship devices and found the story was untrue.

Lithuania's state cybersecurity body claimed in September that Xiaomi phones had a built-in ability to detect and censor terms such as "Free Tibet", "Long live Taiwan independence" or "democracy movement".

The BSI started an examination following these accusations, which lasted several months, but could not find any anomalies that would require further investigation or other measures.

The original allegations surrounded supposed code within Xiaomi smartphones that could allow for censorship of certain terms. In a statement, Xiaomi denied ever doing this, but didn’t deny having the ability to do it.

Theoretically, the software could identify these keywords and remove or otherwise manipulate them. However, it looks like that wasn’t actually happening. It might be a lump of code which Xiaomi had within its phones which could allow censorship among customers who live in more authoritarian regimes but it was not switched on.

https://fudzilla.com/news/54210-zero...omi-censorship

18th January 2022, 08:51	#1
Stefan Mileschin [M] Reviewer Join Date: May 2010 Location: Romania Posts: 153,575	Zero evidence of Xiaomi censorship Germans fling pooh at allegations very precisely Germany's federal cybersecurity watchdog, the BSI investigated allegations that Xiaomi shipped with onboard censorship devices and found the story was untrue. Lithuania's state cybersecurity body claimed in September that Xiaomi phones had a built-in ability to detect and censor terms such as "Free Tibet", "Long live Taiwan independence" or "democracy movement". The BSI started an examination following these accusations, which lasted several months, but could not find any anomalies that would require further investigation or other measures. The original allegations surrounded supposed code within Xiaomi smartphones that could allow for censorship of certain terms. In a statement, Xiaomi denied ever doing this, but didn’t deny having the ability to do it. Theoretically, the software could identify these keywords and remove or otherwise manipulate them. However, it looks like that wasn’t actually happening. It might be a lump of code which Xiaomi had within its phones which could allow censorship among customers who live in more authoritarian regimes but it was not switched on. https://fudzilla.com/news/54210-zero...omi-censorship

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
Xiaomi unveils the Xiaomi 12 series phones in China	Stefan Mileschin	WebNews	0	29th December 2021 07:13
UK braces itself for internet censorship	Stefan Mileschin	WebNews	0	14th May 2021 12:44
Fitbit's IPO is more evidence wearables have grown up	Stefan Mileschin	WebNews	0	19th June 2015 07:27
Kim Dotcom Fails in Bid to Suppress FBI Evidence	Stefan Mileschin	WebNews	0	26th May 2014 08:20
The World Map of Internet Censorship by Country	Stefan Mileschin	WebNews	0	3rd March 2014 09:03
Chinese censorship might not be overreaching	Stefan Mileschin	WebNews	0	11th September 2013 08:55
Cameron decides he wants web porn censorship after all	Stefan Mileschin	WebNews	0	22nd December 2012 07:31
Ustream's censorship bot goes off the rails	Stefan Mileschin	WebNews	0	4th September 2012 12:14
More Evidence That XP is Vista's Main Competitor	jmke	WebNews	1	27th November 2007 08:16
Most compelling evidence yet of Dell going AMD	jmke	WebNews	0	21st November 2005 21:08