A Chinese employee at Xiaomi's Mi Home in Shanghai Photo: IC

Xiaomi's devices do not censor communications to or from its users, a spokesperson of the company told the Global Times on Wednesday in response to a report by Lithuania's state-run cybersecurity body saying that phones by Xiaomi sold in Europe have a built-in ability to detect and censor certain content.

Lithuania's Defense Ministry also recommended customers to avoid buying Chinese mobile phones or throw them away if they have one, media reported.

"Xiaomi's devices do not censor communications to or from its users. Xiaomi has never and will never restrict or block any personal behavior of our smartphone users, such as searching, calling, web browsing or the use of third-party communication software," the company's spokesperson said, adding that Xiaomi fully respects and protects the legal rights of all users and that it complies with the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Xiaomi became the world's second largest smartphone vendor for the first time ever in Q2 of 2021, with a 17 percent share of the global market, according to statistics from Canalys. The company saw an annual increase of 83 percent, while Samsung reached a 19 percent share of the global market with a yearly growth of 15 percent.

Meanwhile, Xiaomi overtook Samsung as the sales champion in Europe, with 12.7 million phones shipped, up 67.1 percent year-on-year, according to a research from Strategy Analytics.

"Xiaomi is growing its overseas business rapidly," said Canalys Research Manager, Ben Stanton, noting that "for example, its shipments increased more than 300 percent in Latin America, 150 percent in Africa and 50 percent in Western Europe."