Barcelona star Antoine Griezmann cuts ties with Huawei after telecommunications giant ‘tested AI software that could send “Uighur alarms” to the Chinese government’
- Barcelona’s Antoine Griezmann has ended his commercial deal with Huawei
- It comes after Huawei allegedly developed software to identify Uighur Muslims
- UN says over a million ethnic Uighurs and other Muslims have been detained in China’s Xinjiang province
- Griezmann had been an ambassador for Huawei since 2017, while at Atletico
- Arsenal’s Mesut Ozil has been fiercely critical of China’s treatment of the Uighurs
Barcelona forward Antoine Griezmann has ended his partnership with Huawei after the Chinese telecommunications giant was allegedly involved in developing software that could send out an alert when it identified Uighur Muslims.
It comes after a report in the Washington Post earlier this week alleged that Huawei had tested software capable of sending automated alerts when surveillance cameras recognised members of the mainly Muslim minority Uighur group.
The facial-recognition surveillance programme could identify someone from the minority group in a crowd and estimate their age and gender.
Barcelona star Antoine Griezmann has ended his partnership with Chinese company Huawei
Huawei worked with a Chinese AI start-up to develop a facial-recognition surveillance camera system to help Beijing monitor Muslim minorities, according to reports
In an Instagram statement, Griezmann said: ‘I announce that I am putting an end immediately to my partnership linking me with this company’
The article cited a document that was allegedly signed by Huawei representatives showing that the company had worked with a startup called Megvii to test artificial intelligence capable of triggering an automated “Uighur alarm”.
The UN estimates that more than a million ethnic Uighurs and other Muslims have been detained in China’s Xinjiang province.
China has denied any abuses and says its camps in the region provide vocational training and help fight extremism.
Griezmann had been an ambassador for Huawei since 2017, and he also worked with the company while at Atletico Madrid, including presenting an Atletico-branded mobile phone in 2016.
But Griezmann, a 2018 World Cup winner with France, cut ties with the company in a statement on Instagram on Thursday.
The high-tech security network could identify Uighurs from a crowd by scanning their face and estimate their age and gender, according to IPVM citing an internal file published by Huawei
He said: ‘I announce that I am putting an end immediately to my partnership linking me with this company.’
His Barcelona teammate Lionel Messi became a Huawei ambassador earlier this year.
A Huawei spokesperson said the Chinese company was saddened by Griezmann’s decision.
‘We would like to extend an invitation to speak to him personally, to explain the work that is currently being done at the highest level, inside the company, to address the issues of human rights, equality, and discrimination at all levels,’ the spokesperson said.
Commenting on the Washington Post’s report on Thursday, Huawei described the language used in the document as ‘completely unacceptable’, adding however that it was a description of functions provided by Megvii, while the document was approved not by Huawei, but by a subcontractor.
‘It is not compatible with the values of Huawei,’ the spokesperson said.
Griezmann had been an ambassador for Huawei since 2017, and he also worked with the company while at Atletico Madrid
Beijing has come under intense global criticism over its policies in resource-rich Xinjiang. A Muslim Uighur woman is pictured walking past security forces with her son in Kashgar in 2008
‘Our technologies are not designed to identify ethnic groups. Non-discrimination is at the heart of our values as a company.’
The Washington Post cited Megvii in a response to its original story as saying its systems were not designed to target or label ethnic groups.
A year ago, Arsenal and former Germany midfielder Mesut Ozil criticised China’s treatment of the Uighurs.
There was a strong backlash in China against Ozil, a German Muslim of Turkish origin, and he was removed from the Pro Evolution Soccer 2020 computer game in China.
The Chinese foreign ministry condemned his comments and state broadcaster CCTV dropped Arsenal’s Premier League game with Manchester City from its schedule as a result.
