{"id":136432,"date":"2020-12-18T12:18:29","date_gmt":"2020-12-18T09:18:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/chinas-alibaba-dismayed-by-uighur-facial-recognition-software\/"},"modified":"2020-12-18T12:18:29","modified_gmt":"2020-12-18T09:18:29","slug":"chinas-alibaba-dismayed-by-uighur-facial-recognition-software","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/chinas-alibaba-dismayed-by-uighur-facial-recognition-software\/","title":{"rendered":"#China’s Alibaba ‘dismayed’ by Uighur facial-recognition software"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#China’s Alibaba ‘dismayed’ by Uighur facial-recognition software<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

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\n 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
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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.<\/p>\n

A report this week revealing the software feature made Alibaba, one of the world’s most valuable companies, the latest Chinese corporate entity embroiled in the controversy over China’s treatment of Uighurs.<\/p>\n

In a statement posted online late Thursday, Alibaba said it was “dismayed to learn” that Alibaba Cloud developed the feature.<\/p>\n

The technology<\/a> was used only in for capability-testing and not deployed by any customer, Alibaba said, adding that it had “eliminated any ethnic tag” in its products.<\/p>\n

“We do not and will not permit our technology to be used to target or identify specific ethnic groups,” it said.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Rights groups say as many as one million Uighurs and other mostly Muslim minorities have been held in internment camps there.<\/p>\n

Beijing initially denied the camps’ existence but now calls them vocational training centres aimed at offering alternatives to religious extremism.<\/p>\n

China’s Uighurs, a Muslim people of Turkic origin, have for decades chafed at Chinese control, anger that has periodically exploded into deadly violence.<\/p>\n

Surveillance spending in Xinjiang has risen sharply in recent years, with facial recognition and other technologies deployed across the province.<\/p>\n

Washington last year blacklisted eight Chinese tech firms for alleged links to the surveillance effort.<\/p>\n

Last week, US-based surveillance research firm IPVM said Chinese telecoms company Huawei had been involved in testing facial-recognition software that could send alerts to police when Uighur faces were recognised.<\/p>\n

Huawei denied the claim.<\/p>\n

But the controversy caused Barcelona’s World Cup-winning French football star Antoine Griezmann to sever an endorsement deal with Huawei.<\/p>\n

Alibaba is the leader in China’s huge e-commerce sector, projecting a sunny image to the world epitomised by globe-trotting founder and billionaire former chairman Jack Ma. <\/p>\n

It has also moved into cloud computing, bricks-and-mortar retail and delivery services, as well as an overseas expansion.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration has imposed an escalating series<\/a> of US sanctions against Huawei over alleged digital collusion with Chinese state security and has hinted at app<\/a>lying pressure on other companies, possibly including Alibaba.\n <\/p>\n\n

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Huawei to open first network equipment factory outside China\n <\/p><\/div>\n

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\n \u00a9 2020 AFP<\/p>\n

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Citation<\/strong>:
\n China’s Alibaba ‘dismayed’ by Uighur facial-recognition software (2020, December 18)
\n retrieved 18 December 2020
\n from https:\/\/techxplore.com\/news<\/a>\/2020-12-china-alibaba-dismayed-uighur-facial-recognition.html<\/p>\n

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