Facial recognition that targets the Chinese Uyghur population is being provided as a service by the tech giant Alibaba, according to a new report published by leading surveillance researcher IPVM.

Alibaba, a tech giant often referred to as the “Amazon of China”, reportedly offers ethnic minority recognition as a feature, allowing customers to racially profile and discriminate against the repressed group.

Any mention of the service, which Alibaba has said was limited to use “within a testing environment”, was quickly deleted from their website following questioning from IPVM.

However, the company is not the first to use this kind of technology. Both Huawei and Megvii have tested Uyghur alarms, with The Washington Post saying that:

“Huawei tested AI software that could recognize Uighur minorities and alert police”

IPVM has previously found that China’s largest video surveillance manufacturer (Hikvision) promoted Uyghur detecting AI cameras. The group also found that the second and third largest manufacturers in China (dahua and uniview) have both offered software that tracked Uyghurs, stating that:

“China’s tech firms are profiting from the systematic abuse and oppression of Uyghurs”

Additionally, in November 2019, IPVM found 12 government projects across China that required the Uyghur analytics – indicating that persecution of the Uyghur minority expands beyond the Xinjiang region. IPVM also said that they allowed police departments to track Uyghurs and that:

“these analytics are even part of top government facial recognition guidelines”

Maya Wang, Senior China Researcher at Human Rights Watch, said that the Chinese government has used facial recognition technology to:

“bolster its repression of the Muslim minorities in Xinjiang by tracking virtually their every move, subjecting them to mass arbitrary detention, forced political indoctrination, restrictions on movement, and religious oppression”

The number of facial recognition cameras in China has risen exponentially in recent years; from 176 million in 2017 to up to 626 million in 2020, making the use of these cameras to attack the Uyghur population even more concerning. 

A culmination of an increase in the use of biometric data and the continued campaign of repression against the Uyghur minority; the blatant violation of human rights, highlighted by this report, have become far too common in China.