Andrew Keen
posted on November 5th, 2011
http://techcrunch.com/2011/11/05/keen-on-justin-dillon-is-the-internet-to-blame-for-contemporary-slavery-tctv/
Justin Dillon is the founder of Slavery Footprint.
Justin, welcome to Tech Crunch TV. It's an honor to be here.
Thanks for having me.
Justin, you have a very serious message about the way in which slavery still has a central role in the contemporary world. Very briefly, tell me what Slavery Footprint is and what you've discovered.
Slavery Footprint is a way to address the issue of modern day slavery here in...not just the United States but around the world. There are 27 million people living in slavery today. And when we say slavery, we're not saying unfair working conditions. We're talking about full on slave labor. Twenty seven million people represents more than were brought across the Atlantic during the 400 years of the Transatlantic slave trade.
Of course not. And yet, as a key cause and effect of globalization, the Internet does play an important role in enabling the conditions that produce today’s 27 million slaves around the world. But it’s also the vehicle with which we can fight this slavery. That’s the opinion, at least, of Justin Dillon, the CEO of Slavery Footprint, a State Department funded organization launched at the 2011 Clinton Global Initiative, which is focused on exposing and fighting contemporary slavery.
The Internet, indeed, is now becoming an essential tool for not only fighting slavery but also raising our awareness about how prevalent it is in many of the products that we consume. As Dillon explained when he came into our TechCrunchTV studio, Slavery Footprint has released an Android and iPhone mobile app which will enable us to find out how much slavery is contained in products that we buy.
Dillon reminded me, for example, that it takes an average of 3.2 forced laborers to produce the average smartphone. Doesn’t that seem like an awfully high price to pay for being connected?
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