AirDrop, Apple's wireless file-sharing feature, has been restricted in China after protesters used it to share images against the Chinese government, according to a report.
Users in China can only use the "Everyone" option in Airdrop for ten minutes. AirDrop will switch from device-to- device sharing to contact-only sharing after ten minutes. After the service was used to spread posters against the president, Apple introduced time restrictions.
The new limitations are not mentioned in the notes.
There was no mention of the AirDrop restriction in the release notes. Readers of 9to5Mac were quick to discover that the restrictions seem limited to phones bought in China.
AirDrop has been used as a way to get around China's online censorship. AirDrop is not a bastion for free speech, as the feature has been used to send nude pictures to strangers, and to ground planes with fake terrorism threats. People who want to troll strangers with pictures of space sloths are not the only ones who can abuse the wireless file sharing system.
Apple has been criticized in the past for implementing changes meant to appease the Chinese government.
The new setting will be made available to global users in the coming year as a way to mitigate the receipt of unwanted files.
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