 |
| Griezmann breaks his contract with Huawei for the sake of Uyghur Muslims |
French soccer star Antoine Griezmann said he terminated his contract with Huawei after a Chinese telecom company was suspected of spying on Uyghur Muslims.
According to a recent report, Huawei has been testing facial recognition software that can help police locate Uyghurs.
Huawei vehemently denied the allegations and told the BBC that it was "sad" about Griezmann's decision.
China's treatment of ethnic minorities has been criticized.
The Chinese government has reportedly arrested up to one million Uighurs in Xinjiang in what the country calls a "re-education camp". Beijing has long denied the abuses, saying the camps are designed to crack down on terrorism and improve job opportunities.
The 29-year-old Griezmann has been a Huawei brand ambassador since 2017 and has been recommended in the company's announcements in France.
Griezmann said on his Instagram account: “After extremely suspicious that Huawei helped develop Uyghur alerts through the use of facial recognition software, it ended the partnership with the company immediately.
IPVM, a US-based surveillance research firm, said in a report on Tuesday that Huawei participated in a test of China's facial recognition program that allows authorities to recognize Uyghurs.
IPVM announced that it received documents showing that Huawei tested the Chinese company's Megvii software on its cloud video system in 2018. Megvii is known for its facial recognition algorithms.
A company spokesman told the BBC that the "language used in the document" mentioned in the report was "totally unacceptable". He added, "This goes against Huawei's values because our technology is not designed to identify ethnic groups and non-discrimination is at the core of our values as a company." "
"Huawei clearly regrets Mr. Griezmann's decision to end its relationship with the company," a Huawei spokesperson said in a Griezmann message. He added: We invite you to speak with him personally to explain the current situation. The company works at the highest level to address issues of human rights, equality and discrimination at all levels, and assures it and all our customers and partners that Huawei takes these concerns seriously. Grand. "