Anti-MWC group claims technology 'has high social and environmental cost'

The anti-MWC tech fair, Mobile Social Congress (MSC) event in Barcelona for the last decade claims that the current technology "has a high social and environmental cost."

"We depend on foreign companies that explode many people on other countries," Clàudia Bosch, MSC coordinator, said during a press conference at the CCCB exhibition hall.

David Llistar, director of Barcelona's city council global justice department, shared a similar message, comparing the salary a manufacturer will receive for developing a device's hardware to the restaurant tickets paid during the Mobile World Congress event in Barcelona.

He said that people pay "€6,000 per restaurant meal against €280 per month" for workers in the Philippines.

The Mobile Social Congress' goal is to open a space for analysis focused on the environment, gender gap, and human rights and to make visible "the other side of the face" in the electronics industry.

One of the main topics was artificial intelligence and how it affects people's rights and workers' rights.

"A lot of important things are taking place, electronics are more and more present on our lives and digitalization is marketed as progress," Bosch said.

Attendees at the MSC also criticized the presence of companies backing the "Palestinian genocide." They complained about it on Monday morning when the MWC opened its doors.

Llistar, representing the city council, was asked about the presence of Israeli companies at the MWC. Local government is part of the Fira de Barcelona managing team.

"What the city council could have done, if it did not have the majority of participations in the company, is publicly position against these kind of companies like it happened with Russian companies regarding the other large conflict in the region," Llistar said before adding that he "does not think that has happened."