Company apologizes over erroneous earthquake warning

Xiaomi TV apologized on Tuesday night after an earthquake warning was mistakenly pushed to some of its TV users in Beijing and nearby areas.

At around 8:15 pm on Tuesday, some Xiaomi TV users in Beijing and surrounding regions received an earthquake early warning message, prompting several users to post online that their TVs had displayed a notification warning of an earthquake in Beijing's Haidian district.

Xiaomi TV later issued an apology, saying the false alert was caused by an operational error during an internal functionality test conducted by its research and development team. The company said internal simulated test data had been mistakenly pushed to its live system.

"The content consisted solely of fictional test data and was not an official earthquake warning, and there is currently no earthquake risk or emergency in the affected region," Xiaomi TV said in a statement posted on its official Weibo account.

In the clarification and apology statement, Xiaomi TV said it had immediately intercepted the erroneous message and was carrying out comprehensive corrective measures involving its information release procedures and testing environment mechanisms.

"We sincerely apologize for the concern and alarm caused to users," the company said.

Xiaomi TV is a line of smart televisions produced by Xiaomi, a Chinese consumer electronics and smart manufacturing company.