Consumers should throw away their Chinese phones and avoid buying new ones, Lithuania’s Defence Ministry has warned.
A report by its National Cyber Security Centre tested 5G mobiles from Chinese manufacturers.
Researchers identified that one Xiaomi phone had built-in censorship tools while another Huawei model could be vulnerable to cyber-attacks.
Huawei said no user data is sent externally.
“Our recommendation is to not buy new Chinese phones, and to get rid of those already purchased as fast as reasonably possible,” said Lithuania’s Defense Deputy Minister.
Xiaomi’s flagship Mi 10T 5G phone was found to have software that could detect and censor terms including “Free Tibet”, “Long live Taiwan independence” or “democracy movement”, the report said.
It highlighted more than 449 terms that could be censored by the Xiaomi phone’s system apps, including the default internet browser.
