Charles Liu, Despite having a massive share of the Chinese market, Apple has consistently been under attack by China’s state media over the past few years. It’s now back under the gun after Chinese state broadcaster CCTV accused the iPhone of stealing data usage on mobile phones, a controversial hidden practice that can cost Chinese consumers as much as $10 (RMB 60) a month.
CCTV made the accusations in a report that tested ten different phones for 120 hours to see if they showed any activity despite being in “standby” mode. As seen by tracking the phones’ data usage on China Mobile, all of the phones were shown to be guilty of transferring data even when they weren’t being used.
With the majority of tested phones consisting of Chinese brands, it was Apple’s iPhone that was shown to be the biggest offender by using 80 megabytes of bandwidth during the 120 hours of testing.
The test doesn’t appear to be particularly scientific, but the Shanghai Consumer Council, which conducted the tests for the CCTV report, has filed two separate lawsuits on the public’s behalf against Guangdong Oppo Mobile Telecommunications Corp and Tianjin Samsung Telecom Technology Co for infringing on consumer rights.
All phones including the iPhone were criticized for having non-removable pre-installed software, something the Shanghai authority claims infringes upon consumer rights by occupying storage space. But while the legal action isn’t directed at Apple itself, commentators are suggesting that the CCTV report is another smear campaign against the California company. Some of the various opinions expressed online include:
CCTV is casting blame everywhere, but doesn’t it realize how much it should blame itself?
CCTV wants to smear Apple, but ends up smearing China Mobile instead!
Didn’t Apple pay off CCTV?
80 MB of data usage stolen within 120 hours on the iPhone? How was this test performed? I have a set package every month that gives me 100 MB. How come I have never discovered this irregularity before?
In 2013, Apple was accused of selling pornography in its iTunes store, while in 2014 the iPhone’s location tracking function was branded as a “threat to national security”. Just last year, the Apple watch was banned by the Chinese army while a scandal over a CCTV anchor wearing an Apple watch failed to incite netizen outrage.
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