Cobalt, the majority of which is mined in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), is an essential component of the lithium-ion batteries used in most consumer electronics. These electronics are primarily supplied by Big Tech, the world's most powerful technology corporations.

Shockingly, the cobalt industry exploits an estimated 35,000 child laborers who are dangerously mining the mineral in the DRC (primarily in what are known as "artisanal mines", for their lack of proper tools) for eventual use by Big Tech. Children have been maimed and even killed due to hazardous working conditions at mines. Forced child labor like this is a form of modern slavery.

In 2019, a lawsuit was filed in the US on behalf of 14 plaintiffs, children who were maimed and guardians of children who were killed in cobalt mining accidents. It made the direct connection between 5 multinational tech giants -- Apple, Dell, Google, Microsoft, and Tesla -- and the local cobalt mines that exploited and harmed the young children.

On November 2, 2021, Judge Carl J. Nichols, sided with the corporations to grant a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, citing that the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA) did not apply extraterritorially to civil claims, a ruling that breaks with widely-accepted precedent. International Rights Advocates will file an appeal to the decision.

Greater public pressure is necessary for exploitation and slavery to end in the cobalt industry. Please help by using your creative skills and influence to encourage your followers from around the world to get involved in necessary advocacy.

We need to call out Big Tech and demand that they only use fair labor practices and pay a fair price to their cobalt miners rather than starvation prices that are at the root of the forced child labor issue.

You can contact the Big Tech companies directly and let them know that you will NOT buy and endorse their latest products until they start respecting basic human rights. Here are links to the relevant companies' contact pages: Apple, Dell, Google, Microsoft, and Tesla.

By raising awareness about how children are abused in the cobalt supply chain, we can unite consumers worldwide to pressure companies to substantively improve labor conditions.

"Exposing slavery in the cobalt industry" (CNN, 2021)

"The Dark Side of Congo's Cobalt Rush" (The New Yorker, 2021)

Young Paris and lawyer Terry Collingsworth discuss cobalt mining and the #FreeCongo campaign (via Instagram Live, 2020)

"24.8% Support For Human Rights Proposal At Tesla" (Investor Advocates for Social Justice, 2020)

"Corporate Crime of Child Labor" (VOA Africa, 2020)

"I saw the unbearable grief inflicted on families by cobalt mining. I pray for change" (The Guardian, 2019)

"Apple and Google named in US lawsuit over Congolese child cobalt mining deaths" (The Guardian, 2019)

"Is my phone powered by child labour" (Amnesty International, 2016)