Your iPhone may have been made by modern slaves

“Buy responsibly” is an increasingly widespread practice which consists of finding out as much as possible about the products you wish to purchase. For example, you can choose a big brand chocolate bar at the supermarket and it will cost less. Or, we decide to go to a local producer, offering organic, fair trade, minimally processed and lightly packaged foods, to favor the short circuit and better respect society, itshealthand the planet.

Unfortunately, this kind of behavior is often more expensive. Despite everything, more and more associations or companies are trying to enlighten consumers. On the technological side, we have for example the Fairphone, which, even if it does not have a very attractive technical sheet, and a moredurable. But this is not the case for all its competitors…

Dark discovery in the republic

At Apple or Samsung for example, manufacturers choose to extract cobalt in African mines which employ young children. Sometimes they collapse and human tragedies occur. But this metal is important for designing theiPhoneand the Galaxy. One of Cupertino's subcontractors,Foxconn(also called Hon Hai), is also experiencing serious setbacks in the Middle Kingdom. For several years, its employees have committed suicide because of the pressure imposed by their superiors.

In addition, we have just learned this week that Uyghurs, already persecuted for a long time in the region, are also victims of its competitors. In fact, they hired many of these Turkish speakers in its factories... At the request of the country, and without paying them. Other minority communities have also been affected by the affair, and the other customers of the companies involved are BMW, Gap, Huawei, Nike,Sonynot Volkswagen.

In total, more than80 000Victims were transferred to these industrial premises between 2017 and 2019. Some came from forced labor camps that public opinion knows about, but which China still hides. They sleep in shared rooms, away from the rest of the population, are forced to learn Mandarin and Xi Jinping's ideology outside of their working hours and are constantly monitored.