Huawei is the Chinese tech giant, one of the very few from the East capable of competing against tech giants from the West.
The multinational technology company headquartered in Shenzhen, Guangdong, designs, develops, and sells telecommunications equipment and consumer electronics. The company is also one of the very few from the East that actively develops artificial intelligence, and continuously research the field.
But here, the company was reported to have been resting a facial recognition system that can detect members of the persecuted Uighur ethnic group.
Because of this, French footballer Antoine Griezmann decided to end his sponsorship deal with Huawei
“Following strong suspicions that Huawei has contributed to the development of a ‘Uighur alert’ thanks to facial recognition software, I am announcing the immediate termination of my partnership with the company,” wrote the World Cup winner to his millions of followers.
“I take this opportunity to invite Huawei to not just deny these accusations, but to take concrete actions as quickly as possible to condemn this mass repression, and to use its influence to contribute to the respect of human and women’s rights in society.”
Griezmann’s announcement follows media reports that Huawei has tested facial recognition software intended to help China’s surveillance of the group.
It was reported that the Chinese tech giant had worked with facial recognition firm Megvii to test and validate ‘Uighur alarms’ that could potentially alert police.
“The report lists dozens of ‘basic functions of Megvii’s facial recognition system’ that Huawei ‘verified,’ including ‘Uighur alert,’ which Megvii ‘passed,'” IPVM wrote in a blog post. “In a separate box, the report stated that Megvii’s software also 'passed' being able to determine ‘ethnicity‘ as part of its ‘face attribute analysis.'”
Huawei told IPVM that it was “simply a test and it has not seen real-world application.”
Huawei released a statement saying it was “saddened” by Griezmann’s decision.
It added that “the language used in the document” was “completely unacceptable” and “descriptions of functions provided by the company Megvii” rather than Huawei’s own language.
Following Griezmann's decision, Huawei reportedly wants to talk with Barcelona to reassure him, explaining that the company isn't doing what he think it does.
Huawei wants to say to Griezmann that the company's work is to "address the issues of human rights, equality, and discrimination at all levels."
Antoine Griezmann became Huawei's global brand ambassador in 2017.
Uighur is an ethnic group that consists of mostly Muslim minorities in China.
They came as a Turkic ethnic group, originating from and culturally affiliated with the general region of Central and East Asia. The group is known to be native to the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region in Northwest China, considered as one of China's 55 officially recognized ethnic minorities.
It was since 2015 that an estimated of more than a million Uighur have been detained in Xinjiang re-education camps.
The controversies here are, China maintain its actions in Xinjiang as justifiable responses to a threat of extremism due to the East Turkestan independence movement and resulting frequent terrorist attacks.
And part of which, the Chinese government has been accused for cultural genocide of the Uighurs, forced sterilizations to the Uighur women, sinicization, and others.
China denies the allegations.
Besides China, Uighur communities are also found in Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan, as well as in Australia. They have their own language, also called Uighur, though China is accused of forcing those taken to the re-education camps in Xinjiang to learn Mandarin.
Related: Alibaba Found To Have Offered Clients An ‘Uighur-Detection-As-A-Service' Using AI
