Influencer Slammed for Praising Conditions at Shein Factory Despite Past Labor Abuse Allegations

Social media users are criticizing an influencer who posted a video praising conditions and treatment during a sponsored tour of a Shein factory, a company infamous for numerous labor rights abuse allegations.

Dani Carbonari, a model and influencer with over 480,000 Instagram followers, uploaded a video documenting her visit to a Shein factory in China. In the video and its accompanying caption, Carbonari shared mostly positive impressions of the facility.

"I was really excited and impressed to see the working conditions," Carbonari said in the video. "I think my biggest takeaway from this trip is to be an independent thinker, get the facts, and see it with your own two eyes. There's a narrative fed to us in the U.S., and I'm one who always likes to be open-minded and seek the truth. I'm grateful for that about myself, and I hope the same for you.”

According to Business Insider, Carbonari was invited to the trip with fellow influencers Destene Sudduth, Aujené, Fernanda Stephany Campuzano, Kenya Freeman, and Marina Saavedra to explore Shein's "Innovation Factory." Each influencer posted similar reviews on their respective social media platforms.

Although Carbonari’s video comments are now disabled, Business Insider reported that numerous users commented on the influencer's failure to address Shein’s extensive history of labor rights violations.

In 2021, Swiss watchdog group Public Eye found that employees often faced unsafe conditions, working up to 75 hours a week and getting only one day off per month in 17 of Shein's factories. Reuters also reported in the same year that the company had falsely claimed international certification for safe labor practices.

In October 2022, Britain’s Channel 4 discovered that employees worked 18-hour days and earned just $0.02 per item in two of Shein's factories. A month later, Bloomberg reported that Shein products used cotton from China’s Xinjiang region, which the U.S. State Department had banned due to human rights abuse concerns related to China's Uyghur ethnic minority.

Before the comment section was disabled, Iman Amrani, host of Channel 4's documentary “Inside the Shein Machine: Untold," commented, "I hosted the Channel 4 documentary that did the undercover investigation into factories that provide clothes to Shein. There is video evidence of laws being broken. They aren't rumors. It is very sad that you have decided to let yourself be used to defend these practices.”

Shein has been trying to distance itself from China as tensions continue between the nation and the U.S. However, concerns about labor rights persist, along with worries about the company's environmental impact as it produces thousands of items daily.

According to Rest of World, overstock ends up being sold at street markets in Latin America, where items are even cheaper than the brand's famously low prices, raising concerns that this competition will deter future investment.