This phone brand can remotely activate censorship on your device

Xiaomi has stayed on top throughout 2021 in terms of shipments, as the company actually passed out Samsung for the number one spot globally in June. However, a new government report makes some serious claims about the company’s phones.

Picture credit: Xiaomi

A Lithuania’s government-run cybersecurity body has released a report (h/t: Reuters) that claims some Xiaomi phones have the ability to remotely detect and censor specific terms. The cybersecurity body specifically looked at the Mi 10T, along with the Huawei P40 and the OnePlus 8T.

Cybersecurity alert on Mi10T, Huawei P40 & OnePlus 8T

More specifically, the report claims that several pre-installed apps on the Mi 10T including the Mi Browser and some more Xiaomi specific apps occasionally receive a blocked keyword list from the manufacturer. The offending keywords relate to Taiwanese independence, freeing Tibet, and more. The device is then able to apparently block content based on any of these keyword.

The report did however claim that the content filtering functionality was disabled on Xiaomi phones sold in Lithuania and the EU at large (the feature is presumably meant for China). But it also claimed that Xiaomi had the ability to remotely activate this feature.

Picture credit: Xiaomi

The report also looked at the OnePlus 8T, but didn’t find any security issues here. But the cybersecurity body still recommended that people don’t buy new Chinese phones, which seems rather strange given that it found no issues with a device from one Chinese brand.

However, it's not the first time when chinese smartphone vendors are exploited for doing such fishy nasty stuffs. There are multiple allegations againts such Chinese vendors of doing such acts in the past.