RELATED: The Latest Major Shortage Is Happening at the Worst Time Possible. Several major U.S. retailers are no longer selling surveillance technology from Chinese manufacturers Lorex and Ezviz, as reported by TechCrunch on Oct. 25. According to the news outlet, Home Depot recently stopped selling both Lorex and Ezviz products, while a Best Buy spokesperson told TechCrunch that it was “discontinuing its relationship” with both manufacturers before pulling the items from its stores. Lowe’s also removed Lorex products from stores, according to the news outlet, and there are no results for Ezviz products now listed on this retailer’s website. According to TechCrunch, both Lorex and Ezviz have been linked to alleged human rights abuses. Lorex is controlled by Dahua Technology, while Ezviz is owned by Hikvision. Both these parent companies, which are headquartered in China, were added to a blacklist of Chinese organizations for being implicated in human rights violations against Muslim minority groups in 2019, according to the Federal Register. As a result, organizations on this list have more barriers against them when attempting to do business with American companies, but since Lorex and Ezviz are subsidiaries of the two tech firms, U.S. consumers have previously been able to buy their technology, as reported by TechCrunch. Best Buy and Lowe’s did not elaborate on decisions to remove Lorex and Ezviz products from stores. But Home Depot said in a statement to TechCrunch that the company is “committed to upholding the highest standards of ethical sourcing and we immediately stopped selling products from Lorex when this was brought to our attention,” noting that it also pulled Ezviz products. RELATED: For more up-to-date information, sign up for our daily newsletter. According to Tech Crunch, surveillance equipment from the two tech firms, Dahua and Hikvision, has been linked to efforts to surveil Uyghur Muslims living in Xinjiang, China. Per NPR, the United Nations says that Chinese authorities have allegedly detained more than 1.5 million Uyghurs in internment camps over the past few years. China has continuously denied this. RELATED: Walmart Shoppers Are Outraged the Store Is Getting Rid of This.
