Another take/some more details from XDA, doesn’t disprove the findings of the researchers as a whole but provides another take. Still glad to know about it regardless:
Given that I found the MiAdBlacklistConfig file in the Mi Video app, I extracted the APK from my device and disassembled it myself. I discovered that the researchers had possibly made a pretty big error; the code above filters an object called “INativeAd”. On disassembly of the Mi Video application, I found that INativeAd is a method in the Xiaomi Global Ad Software Development Kit (SDK). While I could not find the method itself, I found numerous references to it and the functionalities that it can perform.
“INativeAd” is specifically for displaying advertisements, and I can’t find the blacklist file referenced anywhere else. Some of the methods that INativeAd has are the following:
- AdOnClickListener
- OnBannerClosedListener
- ImpressionListener
- OnAdCompletedListener
- OnAdRewardedListener
- OnAdDismissedListener
I think it’s pretty clear that the filter is specifically used for filtering advertisements(…)
Does that mean it can’t be used for censorship in the future? Admittedly no, but the point is that I can’t find any evidence that points towards it being used for censorship right now. To use a pretty clear example, given that the list contains the word “mi”, then if web content were being filtered, you wouldn’t even be able to visit Xiaomi’s own website in the official Mi Browser. Given that “AdBlacklist” is literally in the name, I think it’s pretty clear what the file is being used for.