Photo via @erikfinman/Twitter
July 16, 2021, 11:20 am
Some guy who describes himself as the “youngest bitcoin millionaire” released a video on Wednesday announcing the “Freedom Phone,” billed as the first phone dedicated in all ways to freedom of speech, coming with data tracking blockers and it’s own “uncensored” app store. Erik Finman promised that everything that went into it was done with First Amendment rights as the top priority and even claimed that it “truly is the best phone in the world.”
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Then people looked into it and found that it’s little more than a $500 version of a $120 budget phone made in China. Considering the general opinion about the nation of China among many of the high-profile conservatives who raved about the so-called Freedom Phone, this is perhaps the funniest outcome possible.
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Before the Daily Beast report hit, right-wing figures like Roger Stone, Candace Owens, Dinesh D’Souza, and January 6 insurrection organizer Ali Alexander were talking up the phone on their various platforms, lauding it as an escape from the big tech companies they think are persecuting them.
“I’m holding a freaking phone that is not controlled by Apple or Google,” said Owens in an Instagram video. “We made the switch immediately.”
In spite of the fact that there is very little actual technical information about the phone on its website, investigators found that it’s simply a rebranded version of the Umidigi A9 Pro by the Chinese company Umidigi.
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Finman was soon accused of scamming people with a 400 percent markup on an underwhelming phone, though the bitcoin peddler tried to “vaguely” defend himself by claiming that the features he added to it are totally worth the price of a new iPhone. He also claimed that the phones are manufactured in Hong Kong and no part of it is made in mainland China, but Umidigi’s website states that their headquarters are absolutely located in mainland China, in the city of Shenzhen south of Hong Kong.
People who are already aware of fairly simple and inexpensive (read: free) workarounds for blocked apps on already existing and much cheaper Android phones have cast serious doubt that a few pre-loaded apps and an app store called PatriApp are worth a $500 price tag.
* Get budget smartphone made in China that retails for $179.99
* Install free open source Google-managed OS, fail to do the free compatibility process so can’t use the Android name
* Call it “Freedom Phone” and sell it to gullible Trump supporters for $499.99
pic.twitter.com/1Wt9AJYaeG
— Max Kennerly (@MaxKennerly) July 15, 2021
Others have cast doubt on whether any of the right-wing influencers who promoted the Freedom Phone are actually using it, noting that although Owens claimed that she and others around her “made the switch immediately,” Twitter says she is tweeting from an iPhone.
Candace Owens promotes “the new Freedom Phone” as “a SOLUTION against Apple and Google,” but forgets she’s still posting from **checks notes** “Twitter for iPhone.” pic.twitter.com/FnhwqBRl4Z
— Resist Programming
(@RzstProgramming) July 15, 2021
Tech websites have already panned the phone, warning that the lack of technical information available and sketchy statements from Finman make it, in the words of Gizmodo, “a Black Box That Should Be Avoided at All Costs.”
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“Yet while the product is being sold as an escape from Big Tech’s nefarious oversight, in reality, it appears to be a budget phone from Asia that may end up compromising buyers’ autonomy rather than protecting it,” writes Lucas Ropek.
*First Published: July 16, 2021, 11:20 am
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