Slashdot Mirror
China To Bar People With Bad 'Social Credit' From Planes, Trains (reuters.com)
China says it will begin applying its so-called social credit system to flights and trains and stop people who have committed misdeeds from taking such transport for up to a year. From a report: People who would be put on the restricted lists included those found to have committed acts like spreading false information about terrorism and causing trouble on flights, as well as those who used expired tickets or smoked on trains, according to two statements issued on the National Development and Reform Commission's website on Friday. Those found to have committed financial wrongdoings, such as employers who failed to pay social insurance or people who have failed to pay fines, would also face these restrictions, said the statements which were dated March 2. It added that the rules would come into effect on May 1.
I tagged this article "nosedive" as soon as I saw the title. Imagine if you prevented people who spread false information about terrorism from riding trains or planes in the US? An easy 1/3rd of the country would be banned immediately. And then they'd say it's a tactic to cover up the Bowling Green massacre or hide Obama's true origins.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
They're not even slightly communist anymore. They're very capitalist but also very authoritarian. And they've only recently become a dictatorship (again), previously they were a pseudo-democratic oligarchy.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
The Nazis had pieces of flair that they made the Jews wear
Black mirror S03EP1
The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
If you break the rules you should be punished. But this is not really punishing through clearly defined laws and due process with the right to appeal. This is doling out demerit points that are in themselves meaningless (thus not contestable), but now appear to add up to some serious consequences. The scary part is that the government is lumping in criminal behaviour, misdemeanors, and "socially undesirable" behaviour all in one points system, which basically means they get to tell you what being a virtuous person means, and get to enforce those rules.
Also, the punishment should fit the crime. Being banned from trains and planes is a fitting punishment for someone who repeatedly smokes on a non smoking train, or harasses the flight attendants. It is not appropriate for not paying your parking tickets.
If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
What else can be said. Obedience or your life is hell. And we walked, ran, danced into the flames.
What's communist about them other than the name of their party? Nothing. If Trump renamed the Republicans to the Liberal party this evening, they would also not be liberal.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
Actually, I think this is a pretty decent idea
Trying to up your social credit already :)
That idea is bad in so many ways one cannot count. Who decides what "social credit" is ? If a Citizen of China reads anything about Taiwan, Tibet or Tiananmen Square will that decrease their social credit. What about "Term Limits", I just heard that is a banned phrase in China.
What about this post on a US Site by a non-China citizen, will this very post get me marked as having bad social credit in China, thus denied a visa ? I can see China can easily export they thought control to other countries.
Well I guess I will never get to visit that country now. For visa denial, this social credit thing seems to be being done by a lot of countries, even the US in rare cases. But so far at least the US and most countries does not use "Social Credit" for internal purposes.
Honestly, the examples they give don't sound all that bad at first
For "false information about terrorism", read "complaining about the government in any way". For "Can't ride the train if you owe a fine", read "debtor's prison".
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
If you are accused of breaking the law you should have the right to confront your accuser in an open court.
Try that when you have a ticket from a red light camera. In many states you have no chance.
Also, I'm curious why you assume citizens in China don't get to do this? A right to petition is baked in the PRC's Constitution. And recently citizens have had their rights extended to allow them to sue the government too.
If you aren't accused of breaking the law you should not have to live your life according to the "social rules" made up by [REDACTED]
But it is a law. That's how society works, someone decides some behavior is bad, and devises a law for it, and then you are punished if you do it.
Do you think jaywalking or open container laws make sense to most people outside of the US? They also think we live by a bunch of arbitrary social rules.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
Maybe. Maybe, just like the writers of that Black Mirror episode, they realized how crazy people can get about virtual points on the internet and how easily it can shape human behaviour when those virtual points are at stake. On sites like Reddit or Imgur it's called the "hive mind", where dissent is downvoted into 'oblivion'. Here on Slashdot itself it's not too different.
And what makes it even scarier is findings like this: https://motherboard.vice.com/e... which I can confirm from personal experience. Disliked contributions are more likely to be disliked and liked contributions are more likely to be liked regardless of their content.
You're right, but that's not communism, that's authoritarianism - a practically universal feature of communist countries in the real world, but no more an element of communism than flies are an element of a corpse. There have been small hippie communes that were communist but not authoritarian.
There are also authoritarian capitalist countries that would never be accused of communism - start a peaceful protest in Singapore without government permission and see how long you stay out of jail.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
The move is in line with President’s Xi Jinping’s plan to construct a social credit system based on the principle of “once untrustworthy, always restricted”.
in otherwords he just invented the fabled "This goes on your permanent record, young man".
This can be used to coerce the Rich who aren't loyal enough. You are corecing them not through economic measures, or curtailing their off shored wealth but by physically limiting them in a way they cannot escape by their wealth. And if they want to leave the country then it can easily be applied to their extended family as well so there's no escape.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
Because what they really want to do is ban political dissidents from travelling...a fine system would not enable that.
Not paying you parking tickets seems pretty serious to me.
It isn't. The real crime is not planning for enough parking (or public transportation or whatever) so that you don't have to be writing parking tickets. And if you ban people from using transportation that they need to get to work, then you'll only create crime. This only makes sense if they want to create crime, for example for the purpose of legitimizing murdering their citizens for their internal organs.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
My main concern is that the Chinese government might use this as low-level punishment (lower than imprisonment) for political crimes. For example, punishment for talking about the heroic "tank man" in Tiananmen Square on June 5, 1989.
Or rolling your eyes at easy questions asked by a reporter.
By the end of the day, Liang Xiangyi's name had been censored on China's largest search engines, the video deleted from Chinese websites and millions of Chinese netizens were suddenly worried about what would become of their newfound hero.
It's what ALL communist government always turn into.
Nobody knows if that's true, because nobody has ever had a communist system larger than... well, a commune. Every so-called communist government in history has been a cynical ploy to control the masses and pacify them with fairy tales about worker's rights.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Ah so it's like our US no fly list for "terrorists", or rather people with names similar to aliases used by terrorists (including inactive ones)
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
Black mirror S03EP1
Yep. China govt must have finally pirated black mirror and thought "wow that's a great idea!"
my karma will be here long after I'm gone