China’s Social Credit System
China is looking to implement a “Social Credit System” by 2020 where each citizen will have a “social score” that reflects their behavior.
In fact, some small cities across China have already begun implementing test trials for such a system.
Now, this is significant because if you have a good social score, then you’ll be granted extra privileges in society. You might be able to rent a bike for free, get discount rates on your utilities, and so forth.
On the other hand, if you have a poor social score, then you’re essentially f*cked. Depending on how bad your score is, you might no longer be able to apply to universities and ride certain transportation. You could even have your assets frozen.
For instance, over three million Chinese citizens have already been banned from riding on high-speed trains, and another six million have been banned from riding airplanes due to poor social credit scores.
To top it all off, this said score will be public. Anyone can look up your score at anytime, and the government even encouragespeople to show off their scores. They think that by doing so, those with poorer scores will be “shamed” into bettering themselves. It’s essentially a form of glorified “peer pressure” at the cost of trust.
So what actually affects your social score?
Well, if you are found jaywalking or cheating on an online video game, then your social score can drop.
But don’t worry! You can raise your score by “volunteering” for government programs, being a family “role-model,” and “donating” to charity.
According to the founding document, the system’s goal is to, “allow the trustworthy to roam everywhere under heaven while making it hard for the discredited to take a single step.”
Furthermore, according to President Xi Jinping and his government officials themselves, this social score will be based off of the principle, “once untrustworthy, always restricted.”
And to prove their point, in the city of Xiamen which has been testing the system since 2004, if you try to call someone who has a poor social score, then you’ll hear the line say, “The person you’re calling is dishonest,” before being connected to the call.
How creepy is that?
The five articles I used for researching this article are:
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