News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:A Xiaomi phone might’ve shipped with a censorship list in... by causi on Friday November 19, 2021 @12:35AM (#29274161)
Did you miss the part where it could be activated remotely, and was modified remotely in an attempt to conceal its nature as a political tool? As we've seen with the US, governments will do anything they think they can get away with. Making it known that even the tiniest millimetric step in this direction with not be tolerated is extremely important as the West's tech landscape is occupied more and more by Chinese devices, Chinese software, and Chinese algorithms.
Re:A Xiaomi phone might’ve shipped with a censorship list in... by urbanmiffs on Friday November 19, 2021 @02:53AM (#29274846)
Updating any smart phone to the same functionality over the air would be trivial though.

So if you were the Chinese government wanting to stop those phrases being used at some time in the future, it would make more sense to send the list at the time you activate the list, rather than in advance to be found before it's ever been activated.

It seems more provocative than anything else.

Re:A Xiaomi phone might’ve shipped with a censorship list in... by pdimitar on Friday November 19, 2021 @05:37AM (#29275799)
It's tempting to assume incompetence but I'll go with the following: they might be testing the waters and check if the Western society is vigilant and reacting to their actions.
Re:A Xiaomi phone might’ve shipped with a censorship list in... by superjan on Friday November 19, 2021 @01:23AM (#29274399)
I read that differently: the list on the phone itself wasn’t modified, but the lithuanian report about it, presumably under pressure from china.
Re:A Xiaomi phone might’ve shipped with a censorship list in... by causi on Friday November 19, 2021 @02:36AM (#29274751)
Hundreds of generic "naughty" words were added to the list remotely by Xiaomi in order to make the list seem like it wasn't intended as a political tool, then Xiaomi remotely deleted it from the phone.
Re:A Xiaomi phone might’ve shipped with a censorship list in... by superjan on Friday November 19, 2021 @03:54AM (#29275166)
Seems I was wrong. Sorry. This defies the imagination!
Re:A Xiaomi phone might’ve shipped with a censorship list in... by cycomanic on Friday November 19, 2021 @02:19AM (#29274652)
“They reacted,” Margiris Abukevicius, Lithuania’s vice minister for defense, told me.

It seems like you misunderstood, that statement from the Abukevicius clearly states it was Xiaomi who changed the list (and then removed it).