Tag Archives: human rights

Amazon to pay $1.9 million to settle claims of human rights abuses of contract workers

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Amazon will pay out $1.9 million to more than 700 migrant workers to settle claims of human rights abuses following exploitative labor contracts, as reported by CNBC. The impacted laborers were working at two of the company’s warehouses in Saudi Arabia.

Amazon acknowledged the issue in a blog post, saying it hired a third-party labor rights expert to investigate warehouse conditions. The organization found numerous violations of Amazon’s supply chain standards, including “substandard living accommodations, contract and wage irregularities and delays in the resolution of worker complaints.”

This follows an Amnesty International report from last October that detailed various alleged human rights abuses experience by those contracted to work in Amazon facilities in the region, and noted that many of the impacted laborers were “highly likely to be victims of human trafficking.” The report also suggested that Amazon was aware of the high risk for labor abuse when operating in Saudi Arabia but still “failed to take sufficient action to prevent such abuses.”

Simultaneous reports by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and the Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism offered detailed accounts of the conditions that these laborers allegedly suffered under, according to NBC News. The investigations found that workers had to pay illegal recruitment fees of up to $2,040 to get hired. This forced the migrant workers, many of whom were from Nepal, to take out loans with high interest rates.

Investigators also learned that these workers were living in squalid conditions, with one laborer saying he was living “in a crowded room with seven other men, jammed with bunk beds infested with bed bugs.” The water was said to be salty and undrinkable. Amnesty International echoed these findings, saying that the accommodations were “lacking even the most basic facilities.”

The combination of the exorbitant hiring fees, along with the associated loans, amounted to “human trafficking for the purpose of labor exploitation as defined by international law and standards,” Amnesty alleged in its report. 

Amazon has stated that it has “remediated the most serious concerns” involving the two Saudi warehouses, including an upgrade to housing accommodations. “Our goal is for all of our vendors to have management systems in place that ensure safe and healthy working conditions; this includes responsible recruitment practices,” the company wrote.

It’s worth noting that though that $1.9 million number seems high, it breaks down to around $2,700 per employee. Amazon made $576 billion in 2023, which comes out to more than $1.5 billion each day.

Amazon doesn’t have a great track record when it comes to labor. It’s regularly accused of breaking labor laws, particularly at its many product warehouses. The company is also rabidly anti-union, as many of these complaints involve attempts to stop workers from unionizing. Amazon faces multiple ongoing federal probes into its safety practices, and it has been fined by federal safety regulators for exposing warehouse workers to unnecessary risks.

However, the company remains defiant in its efforts to chip away at worker’s rights. Amazon recently filed a legal document that claims the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is unconstitutional, joining Elon Musk’s SpaceX and grocery giant Trader Joe’s. The NLRB is an independent arm of the federal government that enforces US labor law and has been operating since 1935.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/amazon-to-pay-19-million-to-settle-claims-of-human-rights-abuses-of-contract-workers-192237377.html?src=rss

Justice Department alleges Chinese spies tried to disrupt a criminal investigation into Huawei

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Two spies from the People's Republic of China attempted to interfere in a criminal investigation by the US Department of Justice into a prominent Chinese telecommunications company, US Attorney General Merrick Garland announced on Monday. The two agents, Guochun He and Zheng Wang, were working for the benefit of Huawei, reports Bloomberg. 

According to a complaint seen by the outlet, He and Wang attempted to bribe a law enforcement official to provide them with information on the Justice Department's investigation. The two began cultivating a relationship with the employee, who is not named in the lawsuit, in 2017. They allegedly sought to obtain details about witnesses, evidence and possible additional charges that could be filed against Huawei. He and Wang kept paying the employee for more information not knowing that they were working with an FBI double agent. The two are accused of obstructing the Justice Department's prosecution against Huawei. It's unclear if they have been arrested.  

"This was an egregious attempt by PRC intelligence officers to shield a PRC-based company from accountability, and to undermine the integrity of our judicial system," said Garland. "The Justice Department will not tolerate attempts by any foreign power to undermine the rule of law upon which our democracy is based. We will continue to fiercely, protect the rights guaranteed to everyone in our country."

On Monday, Garland also announced charges against Chinese nationals in two other cases. In the first, the attorney general said four individuals — three of whom were Chinese intelligence agents, according to the Justice Department — attempted to steal technology from the US. The other case involves an incident where Chinese operatives carried out a multi-year campaign to force a US resident to return to China. 

"As these cases demonstrate, the government of China sought to interfere with the rights and freedoms of individuals in the United States and to undermine our judicial system that protects those rights. They did not succeed," Garland said. "Each of these cases lays bare the Chinese government's flagrant violation of international laws as they work to project their authoritarian view around the world, including within our own borders."

Justice Department alleges Chinese spies tried to disrupt a criminal investigation into Huawei

Posted on by

Two spies from the People's Republic of China attempted to interfere in a criminal investigation by the US Department of Justice into a prominent Chinese telecommunications company, US Attorney General Merrick Garland announced on Wednesday. The two agents, Guochun He and Zheng Wang, were working for the benefit of Huawei, reports Bloomberg. 

According to a complaint seen by the outlet, He and Wang attempted to bribe a law enforcement official to provide them with information on the Justice Department's investigation. The two began cultivating a relationship with the employee, who is not named in the lawsuit, in 2017. They allegedly sought to obtain details about witnesses, evidence and possible additional charges that could be filed against Huawei. He and Wang kept paying the employee for more information not knowing that they were working with an FBI double agent. The two are accused of obstructing the Justice Department's prosecution against Huawei. It's unclear if they have been arrested.  

"This was an egregious attempt by PRC intelligence officers to shield a PRC-based company from accountability, and to undermine the integrity of our judicial system," said US Attorney General Merrick Garland. "The Justice Department will not tolerate attempts by any foreign power to undermine the rule of law upon which our democracy is based. We will continue to fiercely, protect the rights guaranteed to everyone in our country."

On Wednesday, Garland also announced charges against Chinese nationals in two other cases. In the first, the attorney general said four individuals — three of whom were Chinese intelligence agents, according to the Justice Department — attempted to steal technology from the US. The other case involves an incident where Chinese operatives carried out a multi-year campaign to force a US resident to return to China. 

"As these cases demonstrate, the government of China sought to interfere with the rights and freedoms of individuals in the United States and to undermine our judicial system that protects those rights. They did not succeed," Garland said. "Each of these cases lays bare the Chinese government's flagrant violation of international laws as they work to project their authoritarian view around the world, including within our own borders."

Meta’s first human rights report defends the company’s misinformation strategy

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Meta has released its first yearly human rights report, and you might not be shocked by the angle the company is taking. As CNBCnotes, the 83-page document outlines the Facebook parent's handling of human rights issues during 2020 and 2021, with a strong focus on justifying the company's strategies for combatting misinformation and harassment. Meta said that its approaches to fighting health misinformation (in light of COVID-19), implicit threats and similar problems reflected a "balance" between freedom of expression and other rights, such as life, security and elections.

The report also outlined Meta's bid to prevent rights abuses with its Ray-Ban Stories smart glasses. The company said studied both the privacy risks and potential harms to vulnerable groups, such as women, children and minorities. Meta touted its privacy protections elsewhere, including end-to-end WhatsApp message encryption that now includes chat backups.

The text won't satisfy critics of Meta's responses to misinformation and violence in India, however. The social media giant only provided a summary of an independent human rights impact assessment for India, noting that law firm Foley Hoag found the "potential" for Facebook, WhatsApp and other platforms to be linked to incendiary speech and safety threats. Meta made changes that included stronger local moderation teams and crackdowns against coordinated harm and hate speech. The company didn't provide the full report, though, and didn't commit to implementing Foley Hoag's recommendations.

There are other holes. The India study didn't touch on allegations of biased content moderation. You also won't find any meaningful discussion of the metaverse — Meta didn't announce its pivot until October 2021, leaving little opportunity for AR and VR to make an impact on the human rights report. Any substantial update will have to wait until 2023. Even so, it's notable that Meta is acknowledging rights concerns more directly than it has in the past.

Meta’s first human rights report defends the company’s misinformation strategy

Posted on by

Meta has released its first yearly human rights report, and you might not be shocked by the angle the company is taking. As CNBCnotes, the 83-page document outlines the Facebook parent's handling of human rights issues during 2020 and 2021, with a strong focus on justifying the company's strategies for combatting misinformation and harassment. Meta said that its approaches to fighting health misinformation (in light of COVID-19), implicit threats and similar problems reflected a "balance" between freedom of expression and other rights, such as life, security and elections.

The report also outlined Meta's bid to prevent rights abuses with its Ray-Ban Stories smart glasses. The company said studied both the privacy risks and potential harms to vulnerable groups, such as women, children and minorities. Meta touted its privacy protections elsewhere, including end-to-end WhatsApp message encryption that now includes chat backups.

The text won't satisfy critics of Meta's responses to misinformation and violence in India, however. The social media giant only provided a summary of an independent human rights impact assessment for India, noting that law firm Foley Hoag found the "potential" for Facebook, WhatsApp and other platforms to be linked to incendiary speech and safety threats. Meta made changes that included stronger local moderation teams and crackdowns against coordinated harm and hate speech. The company didn't provide the full report, though, and didn't commit to implementing Foley Hoag's recommendations.

There are other holes. The India study didn't touch on allegations of biased content moderation. You also won't find any meaningful discussion of the metaverse — Meta didn't announce its pivot until October 2021, leaving little opportunity for AR and VR to make an impact on the human rights report. Any substantial update will have to wait until 2023. Even so, it's notable that Meta is acknowledging rights concerns more directly than it has in the past.

Amazon suppliers reportedly have ties to forced labor camps in China

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A number of Amazon’s Chinese suppliers are linked to forced Uyghur labor camps from China’s Xinjiang region, according to a new report from the Tech Transparency Project. The organization found that five of Amazon’s suppliers have been directly accused by watchdog groups and journalists of relying on workers from China’s many “reeducation centers”, which it uses to detain Uyghur Muslims, Kazakhs and other ethnic minorities. The suppliers produce Amazon devices and Amazon-branded products, such as the Amazon Basics line of home goods and tech accessories.

“The findings raise questions about Amazon’s exposure to China’s repression of minority Uyghurs in Xinjiang—and the extent to which the e-commerce giant is adequately vetting its supplier relationships," wrote the authors of the report. "Amazon says that its suppliers 'must not use forced labor' and that it 'does not tolerate suppliers that traffic workers or in any other way exploit workers by means of threat, force, coercion, abduction, or fraud.' But its supplier list tells a different story.” 

Two of the suppliers named in the report—Luxshare Precision Industry and AcBel Polytech—were also used by Apple, according to an investigation last year from The Information. Both Amazon and Apple have denied working with forced labor suppliers, despite evidence that suggests otherwise.

“Amazon complies with the laws and regulations in all jurisdictions in which it operates, and expects suppliers to adhere to our Supply Chain Standards. We take allegations of human rights abuses seriously, including those related to the use or export of forced labor. Whenever we find or receive proof of forced labor, we take action,” Amazon spokesperson Erika Reynoso said in a statement to NBC.

The Australian Institute of Strategic Policies found that many major global brands deployed forced labor from China, including Adidas, Gap, H&M, Microsoft, Nike, Sony, Victoria’s Secret and Zara. Amnesty International estimates that China is currently holding roughly 1 million prisoners in internment camps, where they are reportedly forced to renounce their religion and subject to hard labor in factories. The camps are mostly in the Western China region of Xinjiang, and have been in place since 2017.

Both the US and the EU imposed sanctions on China in 2021, barring any imports from Xinjiang until businesses can prove that they no longer use forced labor. But the report found that many Amazon-branded products are still produced in the Xinjiang region. For example, the report found that a couple of towel brands still listed on Amazon advertise using “China-long staple cotton” from the Xinjiang region.

“Amazon’s continued use of companies with well-documented ties to forced labor in Xinjiang cast doubt on the tech giant’s stated intolerance of human rights abuses in its supply chain,” wrote the report’s authors.

US retailers stop selling security cameras made by some Chinese companies

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Home Depot and Best Buy have pulled the products of Chinese tech surveillance makers linked to human rights abuses from their shelves, according to TechCrunch. Both US retail giants have stopped selling products from Lorex and Ezviz, while Lowe's no longer carries products by the former. Lorex is a subsidiary of Dahua Technology, whereas Ezviz is a surveillance tech brand owned by Hikvision. As TechCrunch explains, the US government added Dahua and Hikvision to its economic blacklist in 2019 for their role in the mass surveillance of Uighur Muslims in the province of Xinjiang.   

Earlier this year, Los Angeles Times published a report detailing how the facial recognition software developed by Lorex owner Dahua was being shopped to law enforcement as a way to identify Uyghurs. A user guide for the service apparently touts its capability to identify people passing in front of its cameras by race. Meanwhile, Hikvision's cameras have been installed at mosques and detention camps in Xinjiang, according to a 2019 New York Times report. Maya Wang, a China researcher for Human Rights Watch, told the publication back then: "These systems are designed for a very explicit purpose — to target Muslims."

In a report on the human rights practices in China, the US Department of State said that the Chinese government "conducted mass arbitrary detention of Uyghurs, ethnic Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, and members of other Muslim and ethnic minority groups in Xinjiang. China Human Rights Defenders alleged these detentions amounted to enforced disappearance, since families were often not provided information about the length or location of the detention." Human rights groups believe over a million Uyghurs are being detained in internment camps, but China continues to deny the allegations. 

It's unclear why the retail giants have decided to pull Lorex and Ezviz products now, but consumers have freely been able to buy their security cameras over the past couple of years after their parent companies were placed in the US economic blacklist. Home Depot told TechCrunch that it's "committed to upholding the highest standards of ethical sourcing and [it] immediately stopped selling products from Lorex when this was brought to [the company's] attention." Best Buy simply told the publication that it was “discontinuing its relationship" with both Lorex and Ezviz.

Facebook vows legal action after being forced to block Thai anti-royalty group

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After being forced by the Thai government to block access to a group critical of the country’s king, Facebook said it will legally challenge the demand, according to Reuters. The situation has once again cast a light on Facebook’s policies around aut...

IBM stops work on facial recognition over human rights concerns

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The backlash to facial recognition among governments is extending to corporate heavyweights. IBM chief Arvind Krishna has sent a letter (via Axios and CNBC) to Congress revealing that the company has exited its “general purpose” facial recognition bu...