Gymboree Censors Facebook Wall, Hides Forced Child Labor Accusations

While many garment companies have spoken out against the government of Uzbekistan's brutal policy of removing hundreds of thousands of children from school and forcing them to pick cotton, Gymboree has remained silent about these egregious abuses. Now, Gymboree is going a step further by trying to censor those asking the company to responsibly source its cotton.

Just days ago, Girl Scouts USA censored comments that current and former Girl Scouts and Girls Scout cookie fans left on its Facebook wall asking for cookies free from rainforest destruction caused by palm oil production. In addition to the environmental damage caused by palm oil production, this ingredient has also been linked to forced labor. Now the Girl Scouts are joined by the children's clothing store Gymboree in their effort to censor those who want to be sure that the products they buy do not support environmental and labor rights abuses.

Gymboree has blocked the International Labor Rights Forum (ILRF) from posting on its Facebook wall. ILRF has been leading a petition drive on Change.org calling on Gymboree to speak out against forced child labor and to ensure that it is not sourcing cotton from Uzbekistan until the government there ends its use of forced child labor in the fields. As is often the case, the Uzbek government's labor rights abuses are also linked to environmental destruction, including the depletion of the Aral Sea. Some Facebook users have also reported that comments they left on Gymboree's Facebook page were also deleted. This new act of censorship is sadly not the first taken by Gymboree. Previously, Gymboree removed photographs depicting some of the children who are forced to pick cotton in Uzbekistan from it's Facebook page.

The question remains: does simply hitting the delete button make the exploitation of children go away and absolve Gymboree from the responsibility of ensuring it is not supporting forced child labor? While Gymboree ignores the reality on the ground, children continue to be forced to pick cotton in Uzbekistan and recent reports indicate that the human rights crisis in that country is getting worse.

Gymboree may be blocking ILRF's ability to use Facebook to ask the company to behave responsibly, you can still have your voice heard. You can take action now in four easy steps:

1. Send a message to Gymboree;
2. Post a message like this on Gymboree's Facebook wall: Gymboree, stop your censorship and start speaking out against forced child labor in the cotton industry;
3. Post a tweet on Twitter like this: @Gymboree: Stop your #censorship and start speaking out against forced #childlabor in the #cotton industry! http://chn.ge/dMk56e;
4. Take Gymboree's product survey and tell the company that its clothes would be better if it took action to eliminate Uzbek cotton and forced child labor from its supply chain.

Photo credit: Tim Newman