German authority clears Xiaomi smartphone of suspicion of censorship

The Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) had been investigating Xiaomi since September last year. The accusation: The company is said to have built a censorship function into its smartphones. The Lithuanian cyber security authority started the trouble for Xiaomi last year. Back then, owners of devices from the manufacturer were even advised that they should throw away their smartphones immediately. The report published by the Lithuanians said that smartphones from the Chinese manufacturer Xiaomi have a filter list that can be used to censor content. Examples are terms like “Free Tibet”, “Long live Taiwan’s independence” or “democracy movement”, which would be on this filter list.

In Germany, too, these allegations were taken very seriously. The Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) had accordingly confirmed that they wanted to take a close look at this suspicion of censorship. Around three months have now passed and the investigation has come to a temporary end: there is a first official result from the BSI. As reported by the Reuters news agency, among others, the German IT security authority sees no evidence of such a censorship function in Xiaomi cell phones and acquits the company of the allegations.

“No abnormalities”

A speaker has that confirmed to Reuters. A final report on the investigation is not yet available, but will be published shortly. The website of the BSI also does not yet contain a statement, but that too is likely to change soon. “As a result, the BSI could not find any abnormalities that would require further investigations or other measures,” said the BSI spokesman. Interesting: Others are now responding to the allegations from last year. Taiwan has now raised similar allegations of censorship and reserves the right to take legal action Online magazine Taiwan News. Logo, Xiaomi