China's Chilling 'Social Credit System' Is Straight Out of Dystopian Sci-Fi, And It's Already On

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China's Chilling 'Social Credit System' Is Straight Out of Dystopian Sci-Fi, And It's Already Switched On
Like Black Mirror. Totally like Black Mirror.

It's been in the pipeline for years: a sprawling, technological mass surveillance network the likes of which the world has never seen. And it's already been switched on.

China's "Social Credit System" – which is expected to be fully operational by 2020 – doesn't just monitor the nation's almost 1.4 billion citizens. It's also designed to control and coerce them, in a gigantic social engineering experiment that some have called the "gamification of trust".

That's because the massive project, which has been slowly coming together for over a decade, is about assigning an individual trust score to each and every citizen, and to businesses too.

According to China's Communist Party, the system will "allow the trustworthy to roam freely under heaven while making it hard for the discredited to take a single step".

To pull this off, the unprecedented scheme will harness the immense reach of China's technological infrastructure: some 200 million CCTV cameras, according to a report by Australia's Foreign Correspondent.

The idea is these ever-watchful eyes will be hooked up to facial recognition systems, and cross-checked with financial, medical records, and legal records – with the whole apparatus regulated and interpreted by advanced, big-data-crunching AI networks.

The sweeping dystopia of it all is uncannily reminiscent of the TV show Black Mirror – in particular the eerily prescient episode "Nosedive" – but while several outlets have pointed the similarities out, China's ultimate goal goes even further.

"This is potentially a totally new way for the government to manage the economy and society," economist Martin Chorzempa from the Peterson Institute for International Economics told The New York Times in July.

"The goal is algorithmic governance."

For such a complex plan, the crux of social credit is simple. In localised pilot programs that are already operational throughout Chinese cities, citizens are assigned a numerical score.

For positive personal and social acts – such as paying bills on time, engaging in charity, and properly sorting your recycling – citizens get their score bumped up, which gives them access to perks, like better credit facilities, cheaper public transport, and even shorter wait times for hospital services.

But if you break the rules, beware. People who are late with payments, or caught jaywalking or smoking in non-smoking areas, will be punished.

In what's being described as a "digital dictatorship", their score takes a hit for each infraction, meaning they incur things like financial penalties and even travel restrictions.

That's what happened to investigative journalist Liu Hu, who says the social credit system destroyed his career after he was blacklisted for making accusations of government corruption.

Branded "dishonest", he had access to rail travel suspended, and his social media accounts – comprising some 2 million followers – were reportedly shut down, effectively making his job impossible.

As Hu told Foreign Correspondent, he doesn't believe most Chinese are aware of how these kinds of punishments could affect them.

"You can see from the Chinese people's mental state," he says.

"Their eyes are blinded and their ears are blocked. They know little about the world and live in an illusion."


But the social credit system reaches even further than this.

Individuals aren't the only ones subject to this gamification. So too are companies inside China, but also businesses outside it – with international airlines already feeling the coercive aspects of the controversial system, which some fear could "interfere directly in the sovereignty of other nations".

Back home, surveys show the early system is already popular with socially advantaged citizens who are already enjoying the perks of pilot programs.

In other words, the game is on.

"It sounds like it will help improve the quality of citizens in the long run," Shanghai-based saleswoman Joyce Hu told NPR last year.

"As long as it doesn't violate my privacy, I'm okay with it."

https://www.sciencealert.com/china-...mirror-mass-surveillance-digital-dictatorship
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This is straight outta of a horror movie!
 
It's already here, just not completely official, or, rather, explicit
 
I thought you were going to tell me they monetized comment likes.
 
Doesnt sound that bad to me. And chinese are ethnonationalists they dont care.

So basically if you lie, steal, litter and never pay bills you get some privlege taken away. Not big deal. Plus they want it.

West will have it in 20 years or 30
 
Can imagine your "individual trust score" plummets when it finds out you're a Sherdogger.
 
Shit like this is why I'm scared of AI. Its a perfect thing for AI to take control over. This seems like something AI overlord would do on its own anyway.


Hmmm maybe it's already out there and is implementing it's plan...
 
Now that there is an official ranking system, there is going to be some hilarious competition for the title of "World's Worst Chinaman."

Would be worth it for entertainment value alone.

#FloridaManBless
 
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Google is working on a search engine for China that will allow it's government to be able to access the phone numbers of people by their username.
 
Google is working on a search engine for China that will allow it's government to be able to access the phone numbers of people by their username.
I can't believe it, Google that is so liberal and tolerant...
 
Doesnt sound that bad to me. And chinese are ethnonationalists they dont care.

So basically if you lie, steal, litter and never pay bills you get some privlege taken away. Not big deal. Plus they want it.

West will have it in 20 years or 30
Look at this little slave begging to be oppressed by an algorithm. Judge me, computer daddy, judge me!

It also literally said in the article it targets political dissidents.
 
Now that there is an official ranking system, there is going to be some hilarious competition for the title of "World's Worst Chinaman."

Just imagine is we implemented this in the States the types of dudes who would rise to national prominance for having outlier low scores.

Would be worth it for entertainment value alone.

#FloridaManBless
Trump would never had been allowed to run for office if this system was in place in the states.
 
On one hand I dislike centralized government control, but, I do love me some social hierarchy.

Tough one
 
I still tend to think of this as more bark than anything else (in political context), as the CPC and Chinese societal views in general seem to really care about grand gestures to promote societal management and social cohesion of a large population, but that doesn't make it any less horrifying as a conduit for systemic oppression.

But, as I understand it, its most popular as a sort of reference system for market transactions and consumer information in avoiding scams and swindlers.

China’s plan to introduce a nation-wide Social Credit System (SCS) by 2020 has been widely debated. Media headlines suggest that the dystopian future portrayed in an episode of Netflix series Black Mirror, Nosedive, is becoming a reality in China as commercial companies and local governments introduce rating systems that rank Chinese citizens, businesses and social organizations. Currently, there are more than 40 local government-run SCS pilot programs and numerous commercial pilots set up by technology firms such as Ant Financial (Alibaba) and Tencent. What the different fragmented initiatives have in common is their aim to steer citizens and organizations towards “trustworthy” or “honest” behavior.

Previous research focused mainly on the implementation and local experiments
and analyzed the systems as a big data-enabled approach to market regulation and as part of the CCP’s broader strategy of social management
and social control. China Law Translate (Jeremy Daum) and China Copyright and Media (Rogier Creemers) have provided insightful analyses on the legal framework of the system. Yet, so far there has been little research into the public acceptance of these social credit rating systems. The small but growing number of studies investigating citizens’ attitudes towards social credit systems include qualitative interviews on Sesame Credit users’ consumer protection concerns and an analysis on official media discussions and social media posts

Our recent study on public opinion about China’s emerging social credit systems sheds light on how approval of social credit systems varies among different citizen groups. The study was conducted among 2209 Chinese citizens from February to April 2018 and is representative for the internet-connected population in China aged 14-65 (based on age, gender and region). Additionally, we conducted 15 semi-structured interviews with Chinese citizens to gain additional insights.


Commercial rating systems are better known than local government pilots

The results show that social credit systems are already widely used in China: More than 80 percent of respondents reported to use a commercial pilot program, with Sesame Credit being the most popular system. In contrast, only 7 percent were aware of being part of a local government pilot. 43 percent of respondents lived in one of the 42 localities with a government-run pilot; of these, only 11 percent were aware of being part of a local government pilot. This suggests that local government pilots are not yet as advanced in scope or progress as a few showcase examples such as Honest Shanghai or Rongcheng in Shandong province might suggest.

Our survey suggests very high levels of approval. 80 percent of respondents either somewhat approve or strongly approve of social credit systems, 19 percent perceive the social credit systems in value neutral terms (neither disapprove nor approve) while just 1 percent reported either strong or moderate disapproval.

To some extent the high degree of approval we found might reflect the nature of conducting a survey in an authoritarian setting. Yet, half of respondents indicated strong approval, suggesting that overall public support is quite strong. The additional interviews we conducted further confirmed these high approval levels. However, the significant number of value-neutral respondents (neither approve nor disapprove) might suggest the existence of a group of “doubters” – one in five Chinese – who remain unconvinced and more critical.

Citizens with access to benefits respond more favorably

Interestingly, socially advantaged citizens – wealthier, better-educated and urban residents – show the strongest approval of social credit systems, along with older people. At first glance, it seems counterintuitive that these respondent groups would support systems that potentially influence their economic, political, and social freedom and opportunities. As current research by Jennifer Pan and Yiqing Xu
suggests that in China the young, better-educated, coastal urban residents lean toward liberal views, there is an expectation that liberals would be more skeptical of social credit systems.
180917_Kostka_approval_0.png


The overwhelming support for these programs definitely speaks to the huge difference in views of liberty between Chinese and American citizens.

It's already here, just not completely official, or, rather, explicit

You live in China?
 
Look at this little slave begging to be oppressed by an algorithm. Judge me, computer daddy, judge me!

It also literally said in the article it targets political dissidents.

He's a troll. He comes up with a new schtick every week.

Anyway, this is some scary ass shit. Though I'm sure the authoritarians at heart will start liking it. "Well, if you take the political stuff out it's not too terrible"
 
Do they monitor sherdog? Because I would be boned.
 
Not surprised by this, nor would I be surprised by a large portion of those that dare call themselves Liberals today in the west supporting it either...most of those morons actually believe in "Utopia" and have no clue that the idea REQUIRES there to be slaves for it to exist.

Anyway, only a person that wants to live in a fake bubble (aka not reality) would want a system that "forces" people to act in a manner approved by someone else.
 
Their lives are better now that government is more involved
 
The truly worrying thing is that China has advanced beyond the West and can create facial recognition that can tell Asian people apart.
 
Now that there is an official ranking system, there is going to be some hilarious competition for the title of "World's Worst Chinaman."

Just imagine is we implemented this in the States the types of dudes who would rise to national prominance for having outlier low scores.

Would be worth it for entertainment value alone.

#FloridaManBless



#innercitypeoplebless is more like it. The amount of racist claims towards this system in the US would be staggering..
 
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