US Sanctions a Chinese Facial Recognition Company With Silicon Valley Funding (theverge.com) 11
The US Department of Commerce has sanctioned 14 Chinese tech companies over links to human rights abuses against Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang, including one backed by a top Silicon Valley investment firm. From a report: DeepGlint, also known as Beijing Geling Shentong Information Technology Co., Ltd., is a facial recognition company with deep ties to Chinese police surveillance, and funding from US-based Sequoia Capital. Today the Commerce Department added it to its Entity List, which restricts US companies from doing business with listed firms without a special license. Sequoia did not immediately respond to a request for comment. DeepGlint co-founded a facial recognition lab in 2018 with Chinese authorities in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang, according to the South China Morning Post. It has also gained international bragging rights through the US National Institute of Standards and Technology's (NIST) Face Recognition Vendor Test. DeepGlint claimed top accuracy in the test as of January 2021, giving it a potent marketing tool in the security and surveillance industry. While DeepGlint has been accepted for a public offering on Shanghai's STAR stock exchange, the firm hasn't seen the commercial success of other AI startups in the country, explained Jeffrey Ding in his ChinAI newsletter last month. Since the firm is so heavily invested in government work, it has to follow slow government procurement cycles and is unlikely to score huge infrastructure projects, Ding writes.
Victims of genocide using code to tell stories (Score:1)
People behind the great firewall have resorted to coded messages on allowed social media to tell the world what is happening to them: https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
Caught in the middle (Score:5, Insightful)
On the one hand, the US is sanctioning Chinese companies that have funding from Silly Valley. On the other hand, China is giving one of its own companies a hard time [slashdot.org] because it's listed on the NYSE. I sure wouldn't want to be associated with any Chinese company having significant ties to the US!
As for these US sanctions being motivated by the Chinese abuse of the Uyghurs, I call bullshit on that. The US is still killing Syrians and Iraqis in their own countries "because oil", and it imprisons an appalling number of its own citizens for crimes either minor or non-existent, all in the name of funneling money upwards to the elites and the nearly-rich wannabes. So pardon me for thinking that the Uyghurs are just an excuse to make America look good and compassionate while they find as many ways as possible to undermine China. At this point I think undermining China is a good thing - but I do wish the US would be honest about their motivations and just say "fuck China", instead of trying to cloak their actions in spurious and hypocritical "humanitarian concern".
Re: Caught in the middle (Score:1)
Never mind the "abuses" are only alleged and far from proven... much evidence to the contrary, from people who actually have been there.
Re: Caught in the middle (Score:2)
The first step to understanding China is to go there and even better live there. This is exactly what I did. The primary "intellectual" author for Ughyur camps and their purpose is a German living in America working for a US government funded organization which specifically attempts to undermine communist states. He has never been to China and his writings are primarily based on reading job postings for people who do the related work. He even has written about Tibetans in the region I live being put in simi
Us and human rights...hahahha (Score:2)
When are we sanctioning the mob boss? (Score:2)
"sanctioned 14 Chinese tech companies over links to human rights abuses against Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang,"
All of these companies are following orders from the CCP.
Re: When are we sanctioning the mob boss? (Score:1)
When there's anything to actually prove the allogations?