DailyExpertNews Business
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Apple has restricted use of AirDrop wireless file sharing feature on devices in China just weeks after reports that some protesters had used the popular feature to spread critical messages about the Chinese government.
iPhone users in mainland China who updated their iOS software this week can only send or receive files from non-contacts for up to 10 minutes after manually selecting a new “Everyone for 10 minutes” option, according to tests conducted by DailyExpertNews’s office in Beijing.
Users who are not in China have no such limitation and can receive files wirelessly from anyone, including people who are not contacts.
According to the DailyExpertNews team, the change does not appear to affect iPhones in use in China and purchased outside the country. Apple (AAPL) told DailyExpertNews Business that the new feature will expand globally over the next year.
The update comes just weeks after reports in international media, including DailyExpertNews and Vice World News, that some residents of China were using AirDrop, which can only be used between Apple devices, to distribute flyers and images with slogans a rare protest against Chinese leader Xi Jinping on October 13.
On that day, shortly before Xi secured a groundbreaking third term, two banners were hung on an overpass of a major artery in northwestern Beijing, protesting Xi’s zero-covid policy and authoritarian rule.
And in 2019, AirDrop, which is only effective over short distances, was especially popular among anti-government protesters in Hong Kong, who regularly used the feature to drop colorful posters and artwork among subway passengers urging them to participate in protests.
Reaction in Chinese media to the software update was mixed. News website Sohu.com wrote that the feature is designed to address the specific problem of subway and bus passengers receiving nuisance messages.
But others criticized Apple on Chinese social media. The US tech giant has previously been accused of appeasing Chinese authorities, including pulling business website Quartz from its store in China over “substantive concerns” during the 2019 demonstrations in Hong Kong.