Lithuania has advised its citizens not to use Chinese phones. A Reuters report noted that the Lithuanian Ministry of National Defense has recommended that consumers not only avoid buying Chinese mobile phones but even “advised people to throw away the ones they have now after a government report found the devices had built-in censorship capabilities.”

In a shocking revelation, the report said the state owned cybersecurity agency in Lithuania has said that that phones sold by the Chinese smartphone giant Xiaomi Corp in Europe have a built-in ability to detect and censor terms such as ‘Free Tibet,’ ‘Long live Taiwan independence’ or ‘democracy movement’.

According to the news agency, the cyber security agency though the capability in “Xiaomi’s Mi 10T 5G phone software had been turned off for the “European Union region,” but can be turned on remotely at any time.”

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“Our recommendation is to not buy new Chinese phones, and to get rid of those already purchased as fast as reasonably possible,” Reuters quoted Lithuanian Deputy Minister of National Defense Margiris Abukevicius as saying.

The Beijing based Global Times said that Lithuania, the ‘anti-China vanguard’ in Europe, played a new trick by urging the country's consumers not to buy Chinese mobile phones and advised them to throw away the ones they currently have amid ‘censorship’ concerns.

Liu Zuokui, a research fellow on European studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing told Global Times that the Chinese smartphone giant Xiaomi can appeal to the European Union on this accusation.

Now it is to be seen whether Xiaomi finally takes up the matter with EU or any other global watchdog.