Back in September 2021, Lithuania had accused Xiaomi of selling their smartphones with supposed codes that would allow the company to censor certain terms. The brand has since denied this accusation, and now, another agency has backed up its claim.

For those unaware, we had previously reported on the Chinese tech giant facing allegations in the country, with the government asking users to throw away their smartphones from Chinese brands. Apparently, smartphones from Xiaomi could detect certain terms and censor them. To dispute this, the company had even hired a third party cyber security expert as well.

And now, a German IT watchdog group had also begun its own investigation into the matter. This group found no evidence of Xiaomi adding censorship tools to its phones. The IT group added that “As a result, [we were] unable to identify any anomalies that would require further investigation or other measures” (Via Reuters). In other words, it is clear that there is no evidence that would back up the accusations from the Lithuanian government.

It was claimed that using terms like “free Tibet,” “long live Taiwan independence,” and “democracy movement” were sensitive terms to some Chinese citizens, and the brand added software to identify and censor them. It remains to be seen how Lithuania responds to this report. But, it is still a win for the smartphone brand that received a hit in the region. Unfortunately, Xiaomi hasn’t responded to this news either, but stay tuned for more updates.

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Last week, it was reported that the Lithuanian Defense Ministry had advised users of Xiaomi smartphones in that country to throw away their devices due to unauthorized censorship concerns. Xiaomi has immediately responded with a statement that it has never and will never restrict or block any user behavior. The statement also added that Xiaomi fully respects and protects the rights of all users of its devices.

Lithuania’s state-run cyber security watchdog, the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) had claimed that some Xiaomi flagship smartphones have a built-in ability to detect and censor certain searches relating to issues that may run foul to the official position of the Chinese government. The body noted that the feature had actually been turned off in the European region by Xiaomi, but in fact, still exists.

Xiaomi, in obvious response to the implications of the claim by the Lithuanian government, has now hired an expert to assess the allegation that its smartphones have in-built censorship capabilities. Xiaomi may be caught in the crossfire of recent frosty exchanges between Beijing and Vilnius. Some of the issues related to Lithuania’s seeming recognition of Taiwan. This led to Beijing calling for the withdrawal of the Lithuanian Ambassador to China, while also initiating the recall of its envoy to Lithuania in August.

In a statement, Xiaomi says it disputes the characterization of certain findings in the Lithuanian case, it is engaging an independent third-party expert to assess the points raised in the NCSC report. Although the Xiaomi spokesperson did not disclose the identity of the expert it will be engaging, it is believed that this will be a European organization with sufficient clout and expertise. Xiaomi had also said that its standard approach had been to some advertising applications to shield users from extreme content like pornography and references that may offend local users.

The current claims by Xiaomi are viewed by the Lithuanian Defense Ministry as an admittance that the company indeed has a blacklist of items within its content filtering architecture. They are insisting that this list is politically motivated, possibly in line with official positions from Beijing. Xiaomi, however, continues to insist that it is compliant with the extant regulations of data privacy applicable in the EU.

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(source)

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