Last week, users of Huawei smartphones began noticing a strange anomaly. Photos they’d saved to their gallery from the Twitter app were being deleted from the handsets.
Users of some Huawei handsets, as well as those made by subsidiary Honor, reported strange notifications advising users that “Twitter has deleted a photo from Gallery.”
Given the ever-present suspicion of the Chinese firm over spying, this set alarm bells ringing. Why was the company interfering with the Gallery app and manually deleting users’ photos?
Well, it wasn’t. In a statement issued today the company says it wasn’t deleting the snaps, just moving them to a new folder specifically for photos saved from Twitter.
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In a statement, the company explains what’s happened and where users can now find the missing snaps. It also says the issue is down to a version of the Twitter app, rather than anything Huawei is actually doing.
Huawei has recently received user reports that alleges the Twitter app automatically deletes images on Huawei devices.
“Having investigated the issue, Huawei has discovered that whenever users of certain devices download an image using specific builds of the Twitter app (version 7.78.0 and 7.77.0), the app will automatically create a folder of the same name as the image and promptly delete it in the background. This action triggers Huawei’s built-in image protection alert, causing the system to notify the user of the deletion. However, the images are not affected. Users may find their images at the following location: File Manager/picture/Twitter.
Huawei is currently in conversation with Twitter to resolve this issue as soon as possible. Huawei remains committed to delivering the best user experiences.
Essentially, it’s a case of ‘move along, nothing to see here.’ No new spygate controversies to report.
Do you trust Huawei and think the spying allegations are simply designed by domestic companies to halt the firm’s growth? Let us know @TrustedReviews on Twitter.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
