Infodemic: Uyghurs forced into labor during pandemic, apocalypse in Serbia and bad jokes in Kazakhstan
Welcome back to the Infodemic, and a special welcome to all of our new subscribers. We are tracking how global disinformation shapes the world emerging from the Covid-19 lockdown.
Today, from revelations about Uyghurs forced labor during the pandemic to the blood of the former Kazakh leader, here are a few narratives — both real and fake — that have caught our attention and deserve yours.
A Coda Story investigation has revealed that, as China’s Covid-19 outbreak hit its peak, Beijing ramped up its campaign of persecution against Uyghurs, a Muslim minority from the northwest of the country. As cities across China entered strict lockdowns, authorities in Xinjiang province intensified forced labor transfers and shuttled groups of Uyghur men and women to locations far from home, to work on production lines, under constant surveillance. It is difficult to establish the exact number of people affected. We tracked multiple groups of Uyghurs – one of 800, one of 500, and several smaller ones – being sent to factories across China. Experts we interviewed believe that the true number of Uyghurs forced into labor programs during the pandemic runs into the thousands. The UN says that up to a million Uyghurs have been detained in government camps since 2016.
How we got the story:
In the spring, Coda reporter Isobel Cockerell, who has covered the plight of Uyghurs extensively, got a telephone call from Zumret Dawut, a 38-year-old Uyghur woman living in Washington D.C. Dawut managed to escape Xinjiang after spending two months in its camps. As the virus gained traction, Dawut began collecting video footage from Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, showing crowds of Uyghurs being packed onto buses, cars and trains.