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No evidence of censorship tools on Xiaomi phones, says German watchdog (Updated)
July 24, 2025
Updated: August 23, 2025 (7:40 AM ET):Xiaomi has nowrespondedafter a German watchdog revealed that it found no evidence of censorship tools on Xiaomi phones.
The German investigation followed a claim by Lithuania that Xiaomi phones came with censorship tools based on keyword filters. This claim came during a period of rising tensions between Lithuania and China.
Original article: June 01, 2025 (3:24 PM ET):In September 2021, the country of Lithuania levied some heavy accusations against Chinese smartphone manufacturerXiaomi. The allegations surrounded supposed code within Xiaomi smartphones that could allow for censorship of certain terms. In a statement,Xiaomi denied ever doing this, but didn’t deny having the ability to do it.
See also:These are the best Xiaomi phones you’re able to buy
Now, a German watchdog group hired to look into the matter has closed the case. The group found no evidence of any Xiaomi censorship tools within its devices.
“As a result, [we were] unable to identify any anomalies that would require further investigation or other measures,” the German group said in a statement (viaReuters).
The brief statement makes it pretty clear the group found nothing to back up Lithuania’s allegations. As a reminder, those allegations centered on supposed keyword lists within Xiaomi software. These lists contained terms sensitive to some Chinese citizens, such as “free Tibet,” “long live Taiwan independence,” and “democracy movement.” Theoretically, the software could identify these keywords and remove or otherwise manipulate them. However, it looks like that wasn’t actually happening.
We’ve reached out to Xiaomi for a statement on this news. The company did not get back to us before publishing, but we will update this article if and when it does.
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