(Beijing) Apple has imposed restrictions on its iPhones sold in China for file sharing between devices, a function that could potentially be used to circumvent censorship and disseminate information deemed hostile or critical of power.
Updated yesterday at 4:23 p.m.
China already closely monitors its internet network and media. Every day, an army of censors erases content that portrays state policy in a bad light or is likely to create unrest.
Social networks are subject to tighter control, while access to many foreign sites cannot be done without circumvention software such as a VPN.
To escape censorship, the use of an iPhone could constitute a parade. On these phones, the AirDrop function makes it possible to share all types of content, including photos and videos, with another Apple device located nearby.
A feature now restricted in China: with the latest update from the American group, all iPhones sold in the country automatically deactivate this option after 10 minutes for devices not appearing in the user’s contact list.
Concretely, this drastically reduces the probability of receiving files from strangers unexpectedly, and therefore of potentially sensitive messages exchanged without censorship.
The AirDrop feature has notably been used in public places to broadcast slogans critical of the ruling Communist Party, following a rare protest in Beijing last month.
Banners hostile to President Xi Jinping were then briefly hung on a bridge in the capital, just before a Communist Party congress. This gesture of defiance seemed surprising in a city then crisscrossed by security forces and equipped with countless surveillance cameras.
reactions
Apple told AFP that the update was intended to limit junk file sharing and that it plans to roll it out globally next year.
The brand’s products sold outside China therefore did not seem to be affected by these restrictions on the latest update to the iOS 16.1.1 mobile operating system for the time being.
Some Internet users welcomed Thursday on the Weibo social network a positive measure intended to “significantly reduce” “harassment” from strangers.
Others mocked the boss of Apple. “Is Tim Cook a member of the Communist Party? asked one of them ironically.
Brahma Chellaney, a professor of geopolitics at several universities, accused Wall Street of being “a long-time powerful ally of China”.
“Latest example of a US company seeking to appease China: Apple restricts AirDrop, in China only, after Chinese protesters used it to circumvent online censorship and distribute posters against Xi Jinping and against the Chinese Communist Party,” he tweeted on Thursday.
Low profile
Apple products, from the iPhone to the iPad, are immensely popular in China, one of the American group’s main markets outside the United States.
The Apple brand has always refrained from taking a position on sensitive subjects or offending Chinese power. Its CEO has been received several times by senior officials, such as a head of state.
In 2019, Apple found itself in the crosshairs of the official press for having authorized in Hong Kong an application allowing to locate police officers on a map. A very controversial service while the territory was shaken by huge pro-democracy demonstrations.
In 2017, the American giant was harshly criticized for having removed VPNs from its application store in China, at the request of the authorities.
“Apple needs to understand the very real risks of being too exposed to China in 2022,” said Isaac Stone Fish, managing director of Strategy Risks. “Whether or not they give the impression that they are likely to leave China will have a huge impact on the future of the company,” he added.