badgolferman wrote:

Earlier this month, Apple restricted the use of AirDrop in China. The file-sharing tool for iOS was used by protesters to communicate freely without the risk of censorship, because the tool uses direct
connections between devices, creating a local network that cannot be monitored by government internet regulators.

Initially, people could choose to receive AirDrops from everyone
nearby. However, a recent iOS update has made that impossible. The
update made a change to AirDropÿs usage that only applies in mainland
China, while the rest of the world can still use it to communicate as
before.

Users in China can only receive from everyone nearby for only ten
minutes, putting restrictions on how itÿs used.

AirDrop has been used by protesters in Hong Kong to communicate with
other protesters and bystanders, as well as send messages to tourists
from mainland China. On the mainland, protesters have used AirDrop to
spread protest literature.

According to Bloomberg, Apple will roll out the ´Everyone for 10
minutes¡ feature globally next year. But it is not clear why the
feature was first suddenly rolled out in China, especially during a
time of such upheaval and the biggest protests China has seen in over
30 years.

Apple has helped Beijing to suppress public dissent multiple times,
mostly by complying with its requests to remove apps used by protestors
for information and communication. Apple also helps the Chinese
Communist Party prevent users from remaining private by banning VPNs in
the region.

https://reclaimthenet.org/apple-air-drop-china/

--
"We need not worry so much about what man descends from - it's what he descends to that shames the human race." ~ Mark Twain

Thank you badgolferman for letting us know, as I didn't know this myself.

It's clear from the article's header lines that "Protesters were using
Apple's AirDrop feature to directly share uncensored messages" where we
will need to watch for the (usually exceedingly clever) response from
Apple's Joseph Goebbels "Ministry of Public Enlightenment" as to why.

Like you, and like any sensible sentient adult, I have to wonder a whole
bunch of logical things such as why Apple did this and why in China, and
why 10 minutes, and whether it can be turned off or time settable, etc.

The "problem" is obvious, as all bad things well designed are always rolled
out to "someone else" first (ask Steve about raising taxes on the wealthy)
and then they end up ensnaring all of us (which was their real goal).

Remember when Apple rolled out too much bad stuff at once (two pots of
boiling water to boil we frogs in) where Apple had to immediately rescind
both only to add them back later (we can look up the details).

Even Apple, as deviously clever as it is, is capable of learning how to
roll out bad news slowly such that people think it only affects someone
else.

BTW, being a logical person, it seems to me, as it does for you I'm sure, without knowing more than what the article said, the "correct" 'solution'
would be to give the user the option of setting the time period from
nothing to something with reasonable detent in between.

Whether Apple does _that_ will be the proof of the taste of the pudding.

I can't imagine _why_ at the moment anyone would want to restrict AirDrop
who also wants to use AirDrop, but if they do want to restrict it, they
should have the basic options, for example:
(o) Please keep AirDrop on until I shut it off myself
(_) Automatically shut AirDrop off in (settable) minutes

But I have nothing against that setting above, if it's not too complex for Apple coders to figure out how to create the GUI & the settable time slots.

Even the shoestring-funded sophomoric virtually inept Apple R&D team is
capable of that basic of a level of code complexity - don't you think?

Time will give us the answer:
[_] Check here if Apple coders can't handle that basic level of complexity
[_] Check here if Apple coders are capable of that basic level of coding

In time, we'll be able to answer that question above with the facts.
--
Posted out of the goodness of my heart to disseminate useful information
which, in this case, is to intelligently uncover what's going on here.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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