Chinese authorities are using a mobile app designed for mass surveillance to profile, investigate and detain Muslims in Xinjiang by labelling "completely lawful" behaviour as suspicious, a Human Rights Watch report said on Thursday.
Beijing has come under international criticism over its policies in the northwest region of Xinjiang, where as many as one million Uighurs and other mostly Muslim minorities are being held in internment camps, according to a group of experts cited by the UN.
Human Rights Watch has previously reported that Xinjiang authorities use a mass surveillance system called the Integrated Joint Operations Platform (IJOP) to gather information from multiple sources, such as facial-recognition cameras, wifi sniffers, police checkpoints, banking records and home visits.
But the new study, entitled 'China's Algorithms of Repression', worked with a Berlin-based security company to analyse an app connected to the IJOP, showing specific acts targeted by the system.
Source: AAP
Xinjiang authorities closely watch 36 categories of behaviour, including those who do not socialise with neighbours, often avoid using the front door, don't use a smartphone, donate to mosques "enthusiastically", and use an "abnormal" amount of electricity, the group found.
The app also instructs officers to investigate those related to someone who got a new phone number or related to others who left the country and have not returned after 30 days.
Officers are also asked to check whether suspects use any of the 51 internet tools that are deemed suspicious, including foreign messaging platforms popular outside China like WhatsApp, LINE and Telegram.
Uighurs are a Muslim Turkic minority mostly based in the Xinjiang province in China's far north-west. They make up around 45 per cent of the population there.
