Lithuanian government recommends ditching Chinese phones | He denounced “censorship functions”

Lithuanian government has advised against buying Chinese-made cellphones after an investigation published by the National Cybersecurity Agency of this country which reports censorship functions built into the devices.

“Our recommendation is not to buy new Chinese phones and to get rid of those already purchased as quickly as possible.”Lithuanian Deputy Defense Minister Margiris Abukevicius said Tuesday.

The report from the National Cyber ​​Security Center. who tested 5G mobile phones from Chinese manufacturers, identified that a device Xiaomi had built-in censorship tools, while another model of Huawei it could be vulnerable to cyber attacks.

According to the work of Lithuanian specialists, Xiaomi’s flagship phone, the Mi 10T 5G, has software capable of detecting and censoring terms such as “Free Tibet”, “Long live Taiwan independence” or ” democratic movement “.

It was also pointed out that more than 449 terms could be censored by the applications of the Xiaomi phone system, including the default internet browser. In Europe, this feature had been disabled on these models, but the report argues that it could be enabled remotely at any time.

The researchers also found that the Xiaomi device was transferring encrypted phone usage data to a server in Singapore. “This is important not only for Lithuania but for all countries that use Xiaomi equipment,” the report adds.

The smartphone maker recently gained popularity after promoting affordable models, posting a 64% increase in revenue in the second quarter compared to the previous year.

The investigation also highlighted a flaw in Huawei’s P40 5G phone. “Huawei’s official app store, AppGallery, directs users to third-party electronic stores where some of the apps have been assessed by antivirus programs as malicious or infected with viruses,” a joint statement from the Lithuanian Defense Ministry said. and its National Cyber ​​Security Center.

A Huawei spokesperson told the BBC that the company complies with the laws and regulations of the countries where it operates and prioritizes cybersecurity and privacy. “Data is never processed outside of the Huawei device,” he said.

“AppGallery only collects and processes data necessary to enable its customers to find, install and manage third-party apps, the same way other app stores (do),” he said. he adds.

The publication of this document comes at a time when tensions between Lithuania and China are increasing. Last month, China asked Lithuania to withdraw its ambassador from Beijing and said it would in turn withdraw its envoy from Vilnius, the Lithuanian capital.

The dispute began when Taiwan announced that its missions in Lithuania would be called the Taiwan Representative Office. Other Taiwanese embassies in Europe and the United States use the name of the country’s capital, Taipei, to avoid a reference to the island itself, which China claims as its own territory.