Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi Corp said on Monday it is engaging a third-party expert to assess claims from Lithuania's government that its phones carry a censoring feature.
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"While we dispute the characterization of certain findings, we are engaging an independent third-party expert to assess the points raised in the report," a Xiaomi spokesperson said in a statement.
The announcement comes after Lithuania's defense ministry urged consumers to throw away Chinese phones last week, following a report published by Lithuania's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) alleging that Xiaomi phones have built-in censorship capabilities.
Xiaomi did not specify which third-party organization it was engaging to conduct the assessment. A spokesperson told Reuters it was an organization based in Europe.
In response to the allegations of censorship, the company said it uses advertising software to shield users from certain content such as pornography and references that offend local users, a practice it described as standard in the industry.
The company also said with regard to data privacy, it was compliant with ISO/IEC 27001 Information Security Management Standards and the ISO/IEC 27701 Privacy Information Management System, two frameworks for following Europe's GDPR.
