In September 2021, Xiaomi was accused by a Lithuanian-based cybersecurity agency of having censorship mechanisms built into the software of its Android smartphones. Filters that, despite being inactive outside of China, were still present in phones sold, for example, in Europe.
However, the Chinese manufacturer of Android smartphones made public the denial of this accusation, without any news being published since then. However, doubts about such a possibility persisted in this parenthesis, to which a new cybersecurity agency based in Germany has now arrived to support the technology led by Lei Jun.
German IT and cybersecurity group comes to exonerate Xiaomi
According to the Reuters agency, the German group found no evidence of censorship, nor functions that allow it, present in the software of Xiaomi mobile devices. At stake is the federal regulator BSI, in charge of the scrutiny and cybersecurity of mobile devices marketed in Germany.
Thus, we have a new regulator supporting Xiaomi in the face of the Lithuanian accusations last September. According to the report, no inactive or active filters were found on the smartphones and devices under investigation.
More specifically, BSI states that “as a result (of the investigation), BSI has not been able to identify anomalies requiring further investigation based on these allegations.”
The German regulator’s investigation began in September 2021
The investigation began at the end of September 2021, and the findings will now be published by the German body. By virtue of the foregoing, the practices alleged above are not evidenced, such as, for example, the censorship of certain terms.
We recall, in passing, the accusations that issues such as the independence of Taiwan, or democracy in Hong Kong, as well as the political situation in Tibet, were subject to censorship mediated by automatic filters, present in the code (software) of telephones Xiaomi.
In short, this guarantee from Germany and reported by Reuters clarifies the situation, also acting as a guarantee for consumers in Europe.