Alibaba Introduces Then Removes Uyghur Facial Recognition Technology from Website

NYT Reports on US Video Surveillance Research Institute Report

[Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Jeon Jinyoung] China's largest IT company Alibaba Group has been revealed to possess technology capable of identifying the faces of the Uyghur ethnic minority and other minorities within China. Alibaba removed the technology description from its website after controversy arose.

According to the New York Times (NYT) on the 16th (local time), the independent U.S. research organization, the Institute for Public and Video Monitoring (IPVM), published a report containing this information.

According to the report, the website responsible for Alibaba's cloud computing technology introduced how this software can identify Uyghurs and other minorities in photos and videos. This software was designed to identify and block digital content including terrorism, pornography, advertisements, and spam.

Alibaba explained to the NYT that "it was only used during the process of technology experimentation." They added, "It has never been used externally beyond the experiment."

However, the NYT pointed out that "it cannot be concluded whether Alibaba's customers used the software to identify Uyghurs," but "the possibility of misuse is very high." When the NYT questioned Alibaba about the technology, Alibaba deleted the Uyghur identification technology section from its website.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.