George Orwell’s 1984, Black Mirror S03E01, Psycho Pass, The Orville, and many others have all theorized how technology can make our lives better… or worse. Well for the citizens of China, the future is now.
It’s called a “social credit score” and through an app, you can volunteer to be scored based on a variety of things from your credit history to your behavior. The most prominent scoring app is issued by Zhima Credit (loosely translated to Sesame Credit). The program judges users on their habits, for example, if you play a lot of video games your score goes down based on “lazy” behavior whereas if you are a parent tracked buying diapers your score goes up as you are deemed “more responsible.”
So if it’s voluntary what is the problem? Well, the Chinese government has a complicated history with data collection and the ways in which they use it against their citizens. In 2014 they issued a document titled, Planning Outline for the Construction of a Social Credit System (2014-2020), which aims to increase “trust” in society. The plan outlines ways in which to regulate businesses that break contract or fail to pay taxes but this principle will also apply to individuals. It Is a slippery slope but China is not a Black Mirror dystopia yet. Blacklists from the government can affect your Sesame Score but a poor score cannot put you on a blacklist. However, citizens have felt the sting of social scoring in another way – transportation. China quietly began banning people from planes and trains in 2016, due to poor scores.
Chinese officials said that by 2020 they hope to have a fully functioning social credit system. Scroll down below to get a more in-depth look at this terrifyingly Orwellian system.
More info: imgur.com
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