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Freedom Phone
| I, the crown prince of Nigeria, offer you Scams |
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| Hook, line, and sinker |
| Totally sounds legit! |
“”If you're looking for a phone that protects your privacy, look elsewhere. The Freedom Phone raises a lot of red flags. Initially the phone was supposed to run software called Freedom OS, which Finman claimed protects your privacy. It had an "uncensorable" app store called the PatriApp store that claims to feature apps banned by Big Tech. In the announcement video, Finman shows off a phone that is powered off and looks similar to a budget Chinese phone that sells for one-quarter of the Freedom Phone's $500 price.
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| —An honest review of the Freedom Phone[1] |
The Freedom Phone is a scam phone that claims to be “anti-big tech censorship”. It was created for a conservative American audience in response to Donald Trump being banned from Twitter and other social media platforms.[2] Unsurprisingly, most of what it claims to be are lies.
Background[edit]
On January 8, 2021, Donald Trump was banned from Twitter as a response to the 2021 U.S. Capitol riot. Most mainstream social media platforms had been banning content promoting misinformation about COVID-19 and the 2020 U.S. presidential election, and most app stores had banned alt-right apps such as Gab. This spawned a huge persecution complex among conservatives of “liberal” big tech censorship. The Freedom Phone was created by Bitcoin nut Erik Finman, who claims to have been a teenage Bitcoin millionaire.[3]
What it claims to be[edit]
Freedom Phone’s “PatriApp” app store claims to be completely uncensored and to contain apps “censored” by Apple and Google’s app stores such as Parler and Gab.[2] It is claimed to be a completely original design.[2] Its ClearOS operating system is claimed to be developed by the phone’s creators specifically for “freedom, security, and privacy”. It claims to be pre-installed with “banned” and “unbanned” apps such as Newsmax, Parler, Rumble,
DuckDuckGo,[note 1] and OANN.[2] Its claim about its tracking blocker, ClearGM, is likely true; ClearGM is privacy software, and Freedom Phone doesn’t falsely claim to have made it.[4]
As of March 2023, the company's official website states that "[t]he Freedom Phones will come pre-installed with both Twitter and Tesla apps out of respect for what Mr. Musk has done for freespeach [sic] for the world!"
What it actually is[edit]
Ironically, the phone is manufactured by Umidigi, a Chinese company.[5] The phone is a slightly modified Umidigi A9 Pro.[5] The A9 pro sells for under $200,[6] compared to the Freedom Phone’s $500.[2] Both those phones use chips designed by MediaTek, a Taiwanese company whose products are known for containing security issues[7] and General Public License violations.[8] The PatriApp app store is an illegal fork[note 2] of the Aurora Store,[9][5] which in turn is a Google Play client. This means the phone does not support “censored” apps, and the “banned” apps said to be included are only website links. The ClearOS operating system was created by a company in New Zealand in 2001 and does not claim to be developed for “freedom, security, and privacy”.[10] The Freedom Phone doesn't even run ClearOS; instead, it runs a fork of Android.[1] Essentially, the Freedom Phone is a total clusterfuck that doesn’t even meet its stupid standards.
See also[edit]
- Alt-tech
- Patriot Mobile, a similarly themed wireless provider
External links[edit]
Notes[edit]
References[edit]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Patrick Holland, Freedom Phone: The 'ultimate political tool' and why you should avoid it. CNET, 8 September 2021.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Freedom Phone
- ↑ Who is Erik Finman?
- ↑ ClearGM
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 The MAGA-targeted “Freedom Phone” has a breathtaking amount of red flags
- ↑ Umidigi A9 Pro
- ↑ Severe MediaTek exploit affects millions of Android devices, some may never be patched
- ↑ Have You Paid Your Linux Kernel Source License Fee?
- ↑ Aurora Store. f-droid.org.
- ↑ ClearOS