Apple reportedly dropping camera supplier O-Film after forced labor allegations
Apple has begun severing ties with iPhone camera module supplier O-film after learning the company had been using forced labor.
In July, the U.S. Department of Commerce had added O-Film to a list of companies implicated in human rights violations against Uighur Muslim minorities.
The Elec claims that Apple is only allowing the company to supply camera models for older iPhone models. This may hint that the Cupertino-based tech giant needs time to find a replacement, though it isn't quite clear from the source.
It is estimated that O-film Tech supplies about 10% of Apple's camera modules -- a number that has declined over the last four years. LG InnoTek is said to supply about around 50% of what Apple needs for the iPhone, and Sharp fulfills about 30% of demand. Specific product mix between the trio isn't clear.
It was recently reported that Apple had been lobbying for changes to The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act.
Apple has proposed extending compliance deadlines, releasing certain supply chain information to Congress and not the public, and requiring Chinese entities to be "designated" by the U.S. government as helping to surveil or detain Uighurs in Xinjiang.
Apple has disputed the claim, stating that it has the strongest supplier guidelines in the industry, and pointed out that it regularly audits its supply chain partners.
In 2019, Apple removed 18 smelters and refiners for violating conflict mineral code of conduct.
The Elec has a good track record in regards to Apple's moves within the supply chain. It has a notably poorer one as it pertains to Apple's future product plans. Thursday's report is more of the former, than the latter.
In July, the U.S. Department of Commerce had added O-Film to a list of companies implicated in human rights violations against Uighur Muslim minorities.
The Elec claims that Apple is only allowing the company to supply camera models for older iPhone models. This may hint that the Cupertino-based tech giant needs time to find a replacement, though it isn't quite clear from the source.
It is estimated that O-film Tech supplies about 10% of Apple's camera modules -- a number that has declined over the last four years. LG InnoTek is said to supply about around 50% of what Apple needs for the iPhone, and Sharp fulfills about 30% of demand. Specific product mix between the trio isn't clear.
It was recently reported that Apple had been lobbying for changes to The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act.
Apple has proposed extending compliance deadlines, releasing certain supply chain information to Congress and not the public, and requiring Chinese entities to be "designated" by the U.S. government as helping to surveil or detain Uighurs in Xinjiang.
Apple has disputed the claim, stating that it has the strongest supplier guidelines in the industry, and pointed out that it regularly audits its supply chain partners.
In 2019, Apple removed 18 smelters and refiners for violating conflict mineral code of conduct.
The Elec has a good track record in regards to Apple's moves within the supply chain. It has a notably poorer one as it pertains to Apple's future product plans. Thursday's report is more of the former, than the latter.
Comments
I trust Apple to do the right thing before any government agency, politician, or news organization.
Did you miss the "forced labor" part? These aren't poor people being made to work long hours. These are an ethnically targeted group of people being rounded up, thrown into "re-education" camps, and sent off to work in factories against their will.
If you don't trust what the U.S. is stating, then there are plenty of English Language news sources from many, many, other countries reporting the same force labor conditions.
Perhaps, you should look deeper into the authoritarianism of China, rather than postulating what a wonderful government they have;
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2020/12/nazi-china-communists-carl-schmitt/617237/
"Prioritizing order to this degree is anathema to much of the West, yet perspectives such as these are not unprecedented in Western history. In fact, China’s new statists have much in common with a faction that swept through Germany in the early 20th century.
That affinity is no accident.
China has in recent years witnessed a surge of interest in the work of the German legal theorist Carl Schmitt. Known as Hitler’s “Crown Jurist,” Schmitt joined the National Socialist Party in 1933, and, though he was only officially a Nazi Party member for three years, his anti-liberal jurisprudence had a lasting impact—at the time, by helping to justify Hitler’s extrajudicial killings of Jews and political opponents, and then long afterward. Whereas liberal scholars view the rule of law as the final authority on value conflicts, Schmitt believed that the sovereign should always have the final say. Commitments to the rule for law would only undercut a community’s decision-making power, and “deprive state and politics of their specific meaning.” Such a hamstrung state, according to Schmitt, could not protect its own citizens from external enemies."
China mirroring Nazi Party jurisprudence isn't going to lead to a better world; we already know how the first episode ended.
Stop pretending.
https://www.businessinsider.com/china-harvesting-organs-of-uighur-muslims-china-tribunal-tells-un-2019-9
https://www.axios.com/uighur-muslim-detention-camps-xinjiang-china-7d682095-4dcc-4b7b-8368-09e73ae7178a.html
https://www.npr.org/2020/07/04/887239225/china-suppression-of-uighur-minorities-meets-u-n-definition-of-genocide-report-s
https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/29/asia/china-xinjiang-united-nations-intl-hnk/index.html
I have two questions for you, do you think the "cages" in China are built to the same standards as the ones Obama built here in the US? And was Obama responsible for all the "gunning down" of innocent unarmed black men during his presidency?
Finally, read up on Mao Zedong if you want to learn more about a nation killing its citizens. Spoiler, you aren't going to like it...
You are a sad, sad, man.
Your total claims and life assumptions are totally unsupportable and incorrect.
And about the China forced labor of the Muslim groups. My wife regularly reads Japanese news through Twitter and regularly shows me news articles about this that have nothing to do with the US Govt or Trump. You really should seek counseling and help for your irrational Trump hatred and fears.
Would you please give us a link to some of these statistics? Is the statistic a rate, or just a number?
* Ask for evidence
* Follow the money
* Consider the source
The initial reports of forced labor didn't come from the US.
A British investigative journalist first reported it in the British newspaper The Independent in March of last year. The US Commerce Dept didn't weigh in until a couple months later after they had done their own investigations. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/uighur-muslim-china-xinjiang-factory-nike-shoe-apple-dell-volkswagen-a9366956.html
You're choosing to disbelieve a whole lotta not-US reports in order to say you trust the word of the Chinese government and everyone else is lying because... ummm, because...
well because why George?
You've never said why you have China's back in every instance, so much trust and faith in them no matter what the claim is or the amount of evidence emanating from multiple sources, some from within China, supporting reports of malfeasance and human rights violations taking place there. Not one single instance of you saying you don't agree with some Chinese government action taken. Not one.
On the flip side you don't question any report of possible wrongdoing taking place in the US, and in fact go out of your way to spread the word whether entirely accurate or not. If you want to pretend you don't I'll be happy to quote several instances of it you've put in writing in just the past two days.
From my personal viewpoint you appear to be fulfilling some undisclosed obligation to a Chinese entity, and if not then at best writing with some agenda at play that does not include favorable comments concerning the US and requires support for Chinese actions and statements in order to accomplish your goals.
Dear Apple, please consider moving all manufacturing to the USA and do it with autonomous robots. Then produce and sell the robots using those same robots.