In an attempt to raise awareness about their humanitarian situation, families of the Uyghurs detained by China’s authorities in reconcentration camps have been using the video app, TikTok, to bring attention to their plight.
Users of the video app have been sharing photos and videos of their missing family members who are believed to be put in camps alongside more than one million others are detained. Chinese authorities described the camps as "re-educational" while in fact, it aims at ethnically cleanse one of the religious minorities in the country.
On Twitter and Facebook, users went to collect those videos from TikTok and share it in a bid to attract international attention.
在我们家乡的维吾尔人冒着生命危，险通过无标题的都音视频方式为在集中营里的亲戚作证
不知道怎么回事，好象他们也知道了作证能救他们，几天里面上百个视频上传，让人心痛 pic.twitter.com/BYQBFN6L59— Mehmet (@Mehmetjan5) August 19, 2019
The videos seem to succeed in making the issue real for many, with the images and videos widely shared and retweeted all over the world.
Many of them were shared with the hashtag #ProveThe90, that came in response to the chairman of the regional government who confirmed at the end of July that 90% of the people who were released from the centers are looking for suitable jobs to earn money from.
This comes in a time when China’s government still insist that the detention camps are training facilities that teach inmates lessons and cultural activities.
However, many of those who were able to flee leave the detention centers and leave the country revealed the treatment they were receiving inside. In the wide-scale detention centers, detainees are being forced to attend Chinese language classes, repeat slogans praising the Chinese leader Xi Jinping and the communist party, in addition to forcing them to eat pork and drink alcohol, which is forbidden in Islam.
In the meantime, Muslim-majority countries; including Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Qatar have affirmed their position in support of China in what they claimed as “taking a series of counter-terrorism measures to combat terrorism”.
