**Google has removed negative reviews of a popular Amazon fitness tracker after the company was accused of using forced labor in its supply chain.**
The move comes after a report by the New York Times found that the tracker, made by Chinese company Huami, was being manufactured in a factory in Xinjiang, where Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities are subjected to forced labor and other human rights abuses.
Huami has denied the allegations, but the report has sparked outrage and calls for a boycott of the company’s products.
In response to the backlash, Google has removed negative reviews of the tracker from its Play Store. The reviews had accused Huami of using forced labor and called for the company to be held accountable.
Google’s decision to remove the reviews has been met with criticism from human rights groups. The groups say that the move is an attempt to silence critics of Huami and to whitewash the company’s use of forced labor.
“By removing negative reviews, Google is making it harder for consumers to make informed decisions about the products they buy,” said Sophie Richardson, China director at Human Rights Watch.
“This is a dangerous precedent that could be used to silence other critics of corporate abuse.”
Google has not commented on the criticism, but the company has a history of removing negative reviews from its Play Store. In 2020, the company removed negative reviews of the TikTok app after the app was accused of collecting user data without their consent.
The removal of negative reviews is a worrying trend that could make it more difficult for consumers to hold companies accountable for their actions.
**What can you do?**
* **Leave negative reviews of Huami products on other platforms, such as Amazon and social media.**.
* **Contact Google and demand that they reinstate the negative reviews.**.
* **Boycott Huami products until the company can prove that it is not using forced labor.**.
**Together, we can send a message to Huami and Google that forced labor is unacceptable and that we will not tolerate it.**.
