Lithuania looks to ban ‘untrustworthy’ phones after Chinese censorship concerns

VILNIUS -- Lithuania's Defence Ministry is drafting legislation to ban state institutions from purchasing "untrustworthy" equipment, after finding a censoring feature in a Chinese smartphone company's flagship phone, Margiris Abukevicius, deputy minister at the Defence Ministry said.

The censoring capability in Xiaomi's Mi 10T 5G phone software has been turned off for the "European Union region" but can be turned on remotely at any time, the country's National Cyber Security Centre said in a report on Tuesday.

A Xiaomi spokesman said in a statement sent to Reuters on Wednesday its device "does not censor communications to or from its users."

The Defence Ministry is now drafting the legislation to ban public institutions from procuring "untrustworthy" equipment, including smartphones, with a view to presenting it to the parliament for debate by the end of this year, Abukevicius told Reuters.