They did exactly this to phones purchased in the mainland China market, not Hong Kong.
It would appear that Apple did in fact push an update that forced protestors to opt into receiving airdrop files, and it would only work for 10 minutes at a time. Not direct censorship, but the timing and increased difficulty was suspect to many. I don’t trust nostr:npub1mygerccwqpzyh9pvp6pv44rskv40zutkfs38t0hqhkvnwlhagp6s3psn5p's position on this. I find it unusually emotional and ego centered. Not sure what that’s all about.
Discussion
And to be clear, the protestors were *not* using phones purchased in mainland China.
Regardless, your claim that Apple doing something funky with airdrop "suppressed protests in Hong Kong" is completely ridiculous because everything was organized using telegram/whatsapp/facebook/twitter, none of which were restricted.
I understand that your post is more about Apple than China's actions in Hong Kong, but it's still contributing to the process of manufacturing consent for war with China and I know you're smarter than that, that's why I'm annoyed with it.