Two years ago, Apple effectively censored a core iPhone communication feature.The change was reportedly initially made at the request of the Chinese government.However, Apple quickly implemented the change to all iPhones globally a few months later.
Apple essentially endorsed China’s censorship demands by voluntarily enforcing the limit on all iPhone users, including the United States and every other democratic nation.Despite being controversial at the time, Apple’s decision has not faceted sustained public scrutiny.Instead, user control and a decentralized communication method were lost under the guise of safety.
The feature is called AirDrop.It allows iPhones to wirelessly send files, photos, links, and more to other nearby iPhones.AirDrop arrived on the iPhone in September 2013 as part of iOS 7.
Nearly a decade later, Apple made a small change that had a huge impact on how AirDrop could be used.In November 2022, Apple tweaked how AirDrop worked in China through iOS 16.1.1, a seemingly minor iPhone software update.Prior to the update, AirDrop had three receiving modes: Everyone, Contacts Only, and Receiving Off.
iOS 16.1.1 replaced the Everyone option with Everyone for 10 Minutes for iPhone users in China.This change removed the option to keep AirDrop in receiving mode.Instead, the Contacts Only option was enforced on iPhones after 10 minutes.
Apple never acknowledged that it made the change to AirDrop at the request of the Chinese Communist Party.However, AirDrop was widely reported to be a useful tool for distributing information among protesters who pushed back against the authoritarian regime.A single iPhone could prompt a file share to dozens of nearby iPhones with AirDrop receiving from anyone enabled — something internet censorship couldn’t stop.
Quartz reported on the off-the-shelf use of AirDrop in 2019: Apple would argue that it must comply with government requirements in regions where it operates or forfeit the ability to serve customers in those regions.In other words, a partially censored iPhone is better than no iPhone at all.Perhaps that is what happened to AirDrop in China in 2022.
Apple regularly chooses to fight government regulatory battles that it believes it can win.China is no democracy, though, so it’s no surprise that Apple changed AirDrop in the region.What is surprising is how Apple handled the change to AirDrop.
After removing the option to leave AirDrop receiving on in China, Mark Gurman at Bloomberg reported that Apple planned to make the change globally to basically prevent spam.A few weeks later, the censored version of AirDrop in China became the shipping version of AirDrop everywhere.Two years on, AirDrop in its altered form has become the norm.
Although the change likely originated as an appeasement to the CCP, Apple’s explanation that it was made to mitigate unwanted file sharing has generally been accepted.It doesn’t help that AirDrop has at times been used as a tool for pranking — especially when prompts included image previews that could be inappropriate or misleading.Lacking context on how the AirDrop change originated, adding the Everyone for 10 Minutes option is understandably viewed as more user control.
Yet censorship is still the right way to frame what happened to AirDrop.Apple didn’t just add the Everyone for 10 Minutes option; it completely removed the ability to leave AirDrop receiving on.That’s fewer choices, not more user control.
Apple is under no obligation to make AirDrop work the way it did for years.Nevertheless, Apple should be scrutinized for breaking a tool used for anonymous, decentralized communication that bothered an authoritarian government, then preemptively damaging the tool for everyone without pressure to do so.Best Apple accessories Wireless CarPlay adapter iPhone MagSafe battery USB-C iPhone charger Apple AirTag AirPods 4 AirPods Pro 2 Apple Pencil Pro Follow Zac Hall on X, and listen to Runtime with co-host Sophia Tung on Apple Podcasts and YouTube.
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