When is the end of iMessage spam in China?

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With the development of all kinds of social media apps, SMS is not as common as it was 10 years ago, but it’s still indispensable for most of the cell-phone users. However, the long-standing function can sometimes be very annoying.

iPhone users in China have a long history of being bombarded with spam iMessages.

CGTN asked five Chinese users in the newsroom, all of them claimed that they have been harassed by junk messages.

A spam iMessage of promoting gambling. /CGTN Photo

The most common types of spam iMessages include promotion of gambling and pornographic contents.

On top of the one-on-one form, some users also complained that they’ve been added into a group and got the bulk SMS from an unknown number, and the most irritating part is that they have nowhere to block or even report the junk.

According to Apple, since junk messages are sent out from telecom operators, the tech company has no right to identify or intercept private messages.

Behind the scene of flooding junk messages may be the low cost of this kind of advertising. On some e-commerce platforms, buyers can have people sending out ads as cheap as 0.1 yuan (0.015 US dollars) per one message, and it only takes about 8,000 yuan to get a mass-texting device.

So far, the only thing that iPhone users can do to stop the harassment is blocking the phone number or email address that sent the junk message. But, it won’t be effective because senders can always register for a new account.

Experts are criticizing the smartphone giant for its negative act. Zhu Wei, deputy director of the Communication Law Research Center at the China University of Political Science and Law, told Xinhua that Apple should be responsible for monitoring the service it provides.

Zhu claimed that the act of omission is another form of tort.

So for Apple, additional funds need to be invested to solve the problems and how to define the junk one in case it won't have any impact on the normal communication also needs to be settled.