Chinese protestors are revolting against the government amidst China’s “Zero Covid Policy” after a building fire killed 10 people as a result of officials literally locking residents inside preventing them from leaving their apartments.
Tensions are now escalating to levels not seen since Tian An’ Men and the Chinese Government is being closely watched by the rest of the world as to how they might handle the people rising up to the communist party. Unlike Tian An’ Men, millions now have iPhones and are now documenting everything and quickly sharing information with the rest of the world.
In order to pass critical information along to each other, and warn fellow citizens of both the dangers involved in protesting against the Chinese Communist Party as well as the progress being made in their efforts to bring down the CCP, a popular iPhone feature AirDrop is being used. Because China’s firewall blocks social media and content from being distributed to the Chinese people, they are using AirDrop to transfer files to each other’s phones. Because files are being sent on a peer-to-peer network, China has no control over censoring that information, making it critical for its citizens to have access to it.
The problem, however, is that all changed on Nov. 9, when Apple released a new version of its mobile operating system, iOS 16.1.1, to customers worldwide, according to Quartz. Rather than listing new features, as it often does, the company simply said, “This update includes bug fixes and security updates and is recommended for all users.”
Hidden in the update was a change that only applies to iPhones sold in mainland China: AirDrop can only be set to receive messages from everyone for 10 minutes, before switching off. There’s no longer a way to keep the “everyone” setting on permanently on Chinese iPhones. The change, first noticed by Chinese readers of 9to5Mac, doesn’t apply anywhere else.
AirDrop has been an effective communication tool for protestors in Hong Kong, as Quartz previously documented. It’s been used to communicate with other protestors, reach passersby, and spread messages to tourists from mainland China visiting Hong Kong. On the mainland, protestors have also AirDropped protest literature, particularly on college campuses where some of the current protests have broken out. China’s control of the internet has become so strong that dissidents must cling to any crack in the so-called Great Firewall.
Apple did comment on the update, however, and confirmed to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman that the change will go global next year in an effort to reduce AirDrop spam and abuse. Having your AirDrop settings set to Everyone doesn’t mean anyone can send you anything–you have to confirm each transfer, after all. But it potentially lets your name and contacts image be seen by anyone looking to send via AirDrop, and it shows a preview of the file before you accept the transfer, both of which can be avenues for abuse, according to Macworld.
