The world's second-largest phone maker and a pioneer, Huawei has decided to punish employees who posted a New Year's message on Twitter using an iPhone.
The blunder, which took place on December 31, put Huawei in a bad spot, especially after the company managed to overtake Apple and is now trying to beat Samsung to become the world's leading phone maker.
According to a Bloomberg, Huawei demoted and reduced the pay of two different employees, who are believed to work for an organization responsible for the company's social media.
The employees were fined 5,000 yuan ($730) from their monthly salary, plus a demotion, the source said. One of the marketing team members who received the penalty is believed to be the head of Huawei's digital marketing team.
"The incident exposed flaws in our processes and management," Huawei said.
Huawei, which hopes to overtake Samsung by 2020 and become the world's top company, is also struggling to deal with accusations of cyber espionage, with several governments and organizations claiming its equipment poses a national security risk.
The United States, which has been recommending against using Huawei and ZTE, has warned its partners that the two companies may be spying on Beijing, although they have so far not cited any evidence.
“Locking your competitors out of the market doesn’t make you better. We believe that concerns or allegations about security at Huawei must be based on real evidence,” said deputy chairman Ken Hu. “Without real evidence, we do not accept and reject these allegations.”
Huawei also pledged to spend billions of dollars on cybersecurity improvements over the next 5 years to improve its products and work with governments to prove that its equipment is not used for espionage activities.
