Sat 19 December 2020:
The Chinese tech company Alibaba Group Holding Ltd offered facial recognition software to clients which can identify the face of a Uighur person, according to a report.
Chinese tech giant Alibaba has sought to distance itself from a face-recognition software feature devised by its cloud computing unit that could help users to identify members of the country’s Muslim Uighur minority.
The technology could be used to identify videos filmed and uploaded by a Uighur person, flagging them for authorities to respond to or take down.
According to IPVM’s research, Alibaba’s Chinese website showed clients – the websites that might buy Alibaba’s software – how they could use the tech feature, built into the cloud service, to identify ethnic minorities. It included a step-by-step guide and was specifically targeted to search for Uighurs.
IPVM said: “China users can simply send images of people, whether from phones or surveillance video, to the service, and if Alibaba suspects a Uighur, it will flag the person.”
In a statement posted online late Thursday, Alibaba said it was “dismayed to learn” that Alibaba Cloud developed the feature.
The technology was used only for capability-testing and not deployed by any customer, Alibaba said, adding that it had “eliminated any ethnic tag” in its products.
“We do not and will not permit our technology to be used to target or identify specific ethnic groups,” it said.
Earlier this week the international criminal court asked for more evidence on Uighur persecution, after having earlier said it could not investigate claims of crimes against humanity and genocide because China – which was not a signatory to the court – was outside its jurisdiction.
Technology has played an increasingly vital role in authorities’ efforts against Uighurs, and recent leaks have shown how bespoke databases and programs were used to identify people for detention, targeting characteristics including youth, “being generally untrustworthy”, or having siblings overseas.
Alibaba is the leader in China’s huge e-commerce sector, projecting a sunny image to the world epitomized by globe-trotting founder and billionaire former chairman Jack Ma.
It has also moved into cloud computing, bricks-and-mortar retail and delivery services, as well as an overseas expansion.
The Uighur issue looms as a worrying threat for Chinese companies as global criticism grows over Beijing’s policies in the northwest region of Xinjiang.
Rights groups say as many as 1 million Uighurs and other mostly Muslim minorities have been held in internment camps there.
Beijing initially denied the camps’ existence but now calls them vocational training centers aimed at offering alternatives to religious extremism.
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