China plans new rules to regulate file sharing services like Airdrop and Bluetooth

Under the propo­sal, service provi­ders would have to prevent the disse­mi­na­tion of harm­ful and ille­gal infor­ma­tion, save records and report their disco­ve­ries

China is plan­ning to restrict and scru­ti­nise the use of wire­less files­ha­ring servi­ces between mobile devi­ces, such as airdrop and Blue­to­oth, after they were used by protes­ters to evade censors­hip and spread protest messa­ges.

The Cybers­pace Admi­nis­tra­tion of China, the country’s top inter­net regu­la­tor, has rele­a­sed draft regu­la­ti­ons on “close-range mesh network servi­ces” and laun­ched a month-long public consul­ta­tion on Tues­day.

Under the propo­sed rules, service provi­ders would have to prevent the disse­mi­na­tion of harm­ful and ille­gal infor­ma­tion, save rele­vant records and report their disco­very to regu­la­tors.

Service provi­ders would also have to provide data and tech­ni­cal assis­tance to the rele­vant autho­ri­ties, inclu­ding inter­net regu­la­tors and the police, when they conduct inspec­ti­ons. Users must also regis­ter with their real names.

In addi­tion, featu­res and tech­no­lo­gies that have the capa­bi­lity to mobi­lise public opinion must undergo a secu­rity assess­ment before they could be intro­du­ced.

“The new draft regu­la­ti­ons would bring airdrop and simi­lar servi­ces firmly into China’s online content control appa­ra­tus, ” Tom Nunlist, a senior analyst at the consul­ting firm Trivium China, told the Guar­dian.

Google’s Android and other Chinese phone manu­fac­tu­rers, such as Xiaomi and Oppo, also offer simi­lar func­ti­ons that are compa­ti­ble among their own devi­ces.

But Apple, in parti­cu­lar, came under the spot­light after some Chinese protes­ters used airdrop in 2022 to bypass survei­llance and circu­late messa­ges criti­cal of the regime by sending them to stran­gers on public trans­port. The tool was a rela­ti­vely untra­ce­a­ble method for sharing files in China, where most social media and messa­ging plat­forms are tightly moni­to­red.

Shortly later, Apple limi­ted the use of airdrop on iPho­nes in China, allo­wing Chinese users to receive files from non-contacts for only ten minu­tes at a time.



The propo­sed rules will take control of simi­lar func­ti­ons up a notch, requi­ring the recei­ving of files and preview of thumb­nails to be disa­bled by default.

“It is mainly about cyber­se­cu­rity, and the core aim is to ensure all the infor­ma­tion trans­mis­sion can be traced in case proble­ma­tic things happen, ” Gao Fuping, a law profes­sor at the East China Univer­sity of Poli­ti­cal Science and Law in Shang­hai, told the South China Morning Post.

“Apple has faced criti­cism in the past for its compli­ance prac­ti­ces in China, ” Nunlist, the senior analyst, added. “Imple­men­ta­tion of airdrop controls could easily lead to blow­back at home in the US.”

Apple did not imme­di­a­tely respond to a request for comment.

Author: Rachel Cheung in Hong Kong

Photo: Under the new rules, service provi­ders would have to provide data and tech­ni­cal assis­tance to the rele­vant autho­ri­ties Photo­graph: Alex Plavevski/EPA