The recent protests in China have been garnering international attention as the greatest challenge of President Xi Jinping’s premiership and a major blow to the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) longstanding authority. The protests have spread throughout China, but have been partially hindered by a key change in Apple’s AirDrop feature, launched just weeks before the unrest.
The Change to AirDrop In the weeks leading up to the protests, Apple made a change to its AirDrop feature that allows iPhone users to share files wirelessly with other nearby devices. Prior to the change, iPhones running on iOS 11 or earlier could be discovered by anyone within range—even if they were not in your contacts list.
This meant that protesters could easily share pictures, videos, and messages with one another without fear of being tracked by the authorities. However, with the release of iOS 12, Apple changed the default setting for AirDrop discovery from “contacts only” to “receiving off.” This means that unless a person actively enables AirDrop discovery on their device, they will not be able to receive files from others.
While this change was likely made with privacy concerns in mind, it has had the unintended consequence of making it more difficult for protesters to communicate with one another. The Impact on Protestors The new AirDrop setting has made it more difficult for protesters to share information with one another wirelessly. However, it has not completely stopped them from doing so.
Many protestors have simply switched to using alternative methods of communication, such as Bluetooth or even good old-fashioned face-to-face conversation. As a result, while the change to AirDrop has slowed down the spread of information among protestors, it has not stopped it entirely.
The recent protests in China represent the biggest challenge to President Xi Jinping’s premiership and a major setback for the Chinese Communist Party’s authority. The spread of these protests throughout China has been partially hampered by a key change to Apple’s AirDrop feature. However, while this change has made it more difficult for protesters to communicate with one another wirelessly, it has not stopped them entirely.