Al Jazeera reports a big-data program in China’s Xinjiang selects which Muslims are to be detained. Human Rights Watch says that a program calls attention to behaviours such as wearing a veil, studying the Quran or going on the Hajj pilgrimage as justification for arrest.

Al Jazeera reports that HRW had analysed a list obtained from an anonymous source in Xinjiang, of more than 2 000 detainees in the province’s Aksu prefecture.  It found that the Integrated Joint Operations Platform program also ‘flagged people for their relationships, their communications, their travel histories, or for being related to someone the authorities consider suspicious’. The list, dating from late 2018, according to the rights organization, shows evidence of big data and technology helping officials to decide who should be subjected to  “coerced thought transformation”. It’s authenticity had been verified against official records, social media records, and by consulting Uighur diaspora communities.

Maya Wang, senior China researcher at HRW said that China’s ruthless repression of Xinjiang’s Turkic Muslims was being ‘turbocharged by technology’, adding, “The Chinese government owes answers to the families of those on the list: Why were they detained, and where are they now?”

According to United Nation’s estimates, more than one million Muslims, mostly ethnic Uighurs, have been detained in camps in Xinjiang for the sole purpose of erasing their ethnic and religious identities and to ensure their loyalty to the Chinese government. Beijing, meanwhile, has denied the accusations, saying the camps are training centres to help stamp out “religious extremism”.

Al Jazeera reports that about 10 percent of the people listed had been detained for “terrorism” and “extremism”, without any allegations from the authorities that the detainees were involved in any way with any act of violence. Other outrageous reasons for detention included having used software such Skype or Zapya, having switched ones phones off, or having ‘disappeared’ for periods of time.  

HRW said the list “strongly suggests that the vast majority of the people have been detained for everyday lawful, non-violent behavior”. It added that there was evidence that the very same system is being used in other regions of Chins, outside of Xinjiang.

Umm Muhammed Umar