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New Rules Bring a "Credit Rating" For Users of Chinese Social Network
An anonymous reader links this article describing a newly installed set of rules affecting the already put-upon Internet users of China, specifically affecting users of social network Sina Weibo: "Sina Weibo users each will now receive 80 points to begin with, and this can be boosted to a full 100 points by those who provide their official government-issued identification numbers (like Social Security numbers in the U.S.) and link to a cellphone account. Spreading falsehoods will lead to deductions in points, among other penalties. Spreading an untruth to 100 other users will result in a deduction of two points. Spreading it to 100-1,000 other users will result in a deduction of five points, as well as a week's suspension of the account. Spreading it to more than 1,000 other users will result in a deduction of 10 points, as well as a 15-day suspension of the account." The article explains (in truth, not very helpfully) the extent to which users' freedom to talk freely will be curtailed; the long list of what not to do "includes using 'nonconforming' or false images to mislead," "exaggerating events," "presenting already [resolved] events as ongoing," "efforts to incite ethnic tensions and violence and hurt ethnic unity" and "efforts to spread cultist or superstitious thinking; spreading rumors to disrupt social harmony." (And of course the catch-all: "other activities stipulated by authorities.")
You know the one; just cut it out; I'm not going to tell you again.
I suppose here if your facts are different than the "official government facts" you're guilty of spreading falsehoods.
Someone in China must read /. and decided to adopt the Karma system.
sudo make me a sandwich
Will only people who repeat government propaganda have the high scores?
If your score is above 75, you're probably a government propagandist.
To determine who's most honest all I must do is sort users in ascending order, those with the fewest points are more honest than those with the most.
Interesting, Captcha is Botching
Why can't they do this on youtube? And can they include demerits for bad spelling/grammar? Might not be the worst idea.
Kidding.
You want to know how to help your kids? LEAVE THEM THE F*&K ALONE. --George Carlin
Where do I sign up?
When can we implement this Stateside?
Probably has to do with this ( http://articles.cnn.com/2012-03-30/asia/world_asia_china-microblogs-crackdown_1_coup-rumors-coup-attempt-sina-s-weibo?_s=PM:ASIA )
Spreading of unfounded rumors of a coup in Beijing on Social media, means more restrictions will come into play. It was to be expected. After all, libel and other forms of lying are illegal in most of the world. So is attempting to incite rebellion illegal in just about every country in the world including China. Its obvious that the Chinese would do something about it eventually.
50 points from Griffindor!!!!!
Sorry, but gray text on gray background is making my eyes bleed.
Chinese citizen: I love President Obama and his wife Hillary Clinton. I got a "Clinton" at the Olympics.
You Americans call that a bj if I recall correctly.
...this is how centralised social media platforms already work (from Facebook to Wikipedia), except the mob with the most time to waste acts as the censor.
[LIKE]
If you want to disseminate or discuss information freely, you don't use such a service.
Censorship in China is illegal. Since it's illegal, it doesn't happen, so there is no need for a complaint mechanism. Amusing as that line of thinking (or not thinking) is, it isn't as bad as the Conservative government in Canada. Faced with criticism about it's environmental policies, it responded by taking away environmental organisations charitable status. Don't respond to criticism, wipe it out. Maybe that's why Prime Minister Harper refers to his jet as the Death Star.
Realize that obtaining objectivity is actually pretty hard. In America, entire cities of people would like to teach that man was created from dirt by a very anthropomorphic all-powerful being, and that the theory of evolution is a direct lie intended to mislead you to a pit of eternal fire. They are pretty angry at governmental regulations that forbid the teachings of what they think is "truth," and require the teaching of what they think is a lie. And yet, equally populous communities of scientifically enlightened Americans approve of this governmental regulation of truth, while simultaneously disapproving of the Chinese government doing the same thing.
Freedom in general is pretty difficult to tolerate. The more free my neighbors are, the more they are able to do things that harm me (like ruin their yards which reduces my property values, mishandle their firearms resulting in bullets flying in my direction, or vote in laws that prevent me from terminating an unwanted pregnancy or marrying whatever adult I fall in love with, or establish market dominance and abuse their position as a monopoly forcing me out of business and relegating me to work for pennies, etc.).
The higher the population density, the greater incentive everyone faces to limit what everyone else can do (while, of course, wanting to retain their own freedoms). The end result is an endless game of hypocrisy and tyranny. Don't expect it to change, either, as this is the best humans can do.
Categories could include already illegal things such as
"criticizing a religion other than Christianity", "questioning the existence of the Holocaust or diminishing its importance or uniqueness", "saying something unkind to a gay person, or something bad about gay people in general" and "efforts to incite racial hatred and violence and hurt ethnic unity".
CHICOMs
And this was one of the countries petitioning the UN for control of the internet....
"Spreading an untruth to 100 other users will result in a deduction of two points. Spreading it to 100-1,000 other users will result in a deduction of five points, as well as a week's suspension of the account. Spreading it to more than 1,000 other users will result in a deduction of 10 points, as well as a 15-day suspension of the account."
This plan seems to ignore that information could be spread to a vast number of people at little cost to owners accounts spawning the last couple of hops.
To avoid censorship (which the Party is attempting to be less ham-fisted with) the "political" comments with the most re-tweets have become more and more sideways. I'd expect the "rewards" system to have to wait until some re-tweet elevates, at which point everyone will be punished retrospectively who re-tweeted it. The evolution of Chinese commentary in social networks is really something.
Gently reply
That is inhuman. So a gift of $100 actually costs me $100 instead of $50 odd dollars?
How can USA/AUS/GBR use this software to censor their populace?
It's only a matter of time.
Dude, we have a ton of sites with that kind of moderation. what's the big deal. if you open a stack overflow account and spread a bunch of false shit about Linux or whatever damn right you gonna get modded down and eventually deleted.
Interesting idea. What about granting "the government" "Authority Points"? Or, something along those lines. Different type of "Branch", "governmental", "security", "administrative", ... financial OR tax .... etc.? The smart -ologists can, I'm sure, work out a lot of very promising mixes of coverage and control, checks, and balances.
Users, of course, could also get a mix of intermoderating pints, I mean, points. Some, to dole out at will. Others, for specific matters.
The authorities would have only so many points to expend in control, administration, supervision, etc. I suppose some fair "point-donation" system could be thought out, that wouldn't be too susceptible to strong-arming or bribery.
Not that bad an Idea.
Might even make it to general "real world" administration and government, some day.
And no, corporations are not people. Not even very very very maladjusted nihilistically neurotic vandal delinquent deranged mental psycho ones.
Just try to do what somebody in power defines as:
1. Deny the holocaust,
2. Incite homophobia.
3. Incite racial hatred.
4. Display child pornography (where in some places e.g. Italy the "child" can mean a 17 years old).
5. Denigrate the Moslem religion.
6. Suggest that Homeland Security has been given too much power.
And in all those cases, truth or consent is NOT a defence!
And you will find yourself in jail, not just banned from posting for a month.
I wish we could subject North American politicians to a similar policy.
Politics would suddenly become very peaceful and honest, and if they didn't, we'd see a lot less of our politicians (because of the 15-day suspentions).
So I take it that those users who do NOT "provide their official government-issued identification numbers ... and link to a cellphone account ..." will suffer greatly by having to sign up for another fake account every single time they run out of points ... Gosh, that's harsh.
If it's a UN body, they can use their vote/veto to censor anything they don't like.
They're all about micromanaging what people think, apparently...
turn it into a game! where huge negative score is desired.. and a week or month long suspension, a badge of honor.
But then again we are not plus gooder
So you get eighty points, and if you bend over backwards and make yourself a nice and easy target you get twenty more, but all you can do with them is lose them and get into more trouble because of them. That's not a reputation system. It's a "incriminate yourself please, citizen" system. Reputation is as much about the climbing as it is about the falling down. But this thing only makes you go down. Or how many times can you burn another identity for another twenty points then? Just the once? Thought so.
Why not do a quick google search before displaying your ignorance. Many people have been jailed for "inciting racial/religious hatred" in the Anglosphere (obviously never in the US since any such law would be unconstitutional).
Brendan O'Connell was jailed in Australia for comments relating to Jewish people.
Also in Australia we have
link