Germany's federal cybersecurity body fails to find any proof of built-in censorship inside Xiaomi phones

Germany’s Federal Cyber Security Authority, also known as the BSI, has concluded its investigation of Xiaomi. The investigation by BSI was started last September when Lithuania accused Xiaomi of censoring certain words like “Free Tibet” from its smartphones. Following the allegation, the BSI started a formal investigation into the matter calling it a “technical investigation”. At the time, BSI gave no other details about the nature of the inquiry.

Now, the BSI has stated that it didn’t find any evidence of censorship on Xiaomi’s part. According to the agency's spokesperson, “the BSI was unable to identify any anomalies that would require further investigation or other measures.”

The move to investigate Xiaomi reflects Germany’s increasingly cautious behavior towards Chinese companies owing to security concerns. Following the U.S. ban on Huawei, Germany was also under pressure to ban Huawei and not allow the company to build out its 5G infrastructure. However, Germany allowed the company to build its 5G infrastructure but only after the Chinese firm guaranteed that there would be no security breaches.

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