Huawei tested facial recognition that targeted Uyghurs in China

Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei tested facial recognition software that could identify minority Uyghur individuals and automatically send alerts to local authorities of their presence, according to a report obtained by The Washington Post. The document reportedly shows that in 2018 Huawei worked with Megvii, one of China's leading facial recognition startups, to test an AI-powered camera system that could attempt to identify the age, sex and ethnicity of people in a crowd. When it detected the face of an Uyghur individual, it would reportedly trigger an "Uyghur alarm" and alert police in China. The Uyghurs are a mostly Muslim Turkic ethnic group. There are approximately 11 million Uyghurs currently in China, with the majority living in the country's northern Xinjiang province.