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Chinese Journalist Banned From Flying, Buying Property Due To 'Social Credit Score' (cbslocal.com)

schwit1 shares a report from CBS Local: China is rolling out a high-tech plan to give all of its 1.4 billion citizens a personal score, based on how they behave. But there are consequences if a score gets too low, and for some that's cause for concern. When Liu Hu recently tried to book a flight, he was told he was banned from flying because he was on the list of untrustworthy people. Liu is a journalist who was ordered by a court to apologize for a series of tweets he wrote and was then told his apology was insincere. "I can't buy property. My child can't go to a private school," he said. "You feel you're being controlled by the list all the time." And the list is now getting longer as every Chinese citizen is being assigned a social credit score -- a fluctuating rating based on a range of behaviors. It's believed that community service and buying Chinese-made products can raise your score. Fraud, tax evasion and smoking in non-smoking areas can drop it.

41 of 404 comments (clear)

  1. China has "progressive" thought-police too? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Wow, who knew!

  2. Someone's been watching Black Mirror... by wiretrip · · Score: 5, Informative

    ..and thought 'That's a good idea!'.... Scary..

    1. Re:Someone's been watching Black Mirror... by NettiWelho · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Perplexing system.. Tweeting gets you grounded and homeless.. Killing +100 million people makes you the leader..

    2. Re:Someone's been watching Black Mirror... by Carewolf · · Score: 3, Insightful

      It IS a good idea, I've been advocating it for ages.

      I wouldn't use it to ban you from flying though. I'd only use it to affect your right to vote, to claim social benefits (government money), etc.

      You want anything back from society? Stop being antisocial!

      Lose your right to vote for disagreeing with the government???

      Yeah.. No!!!

    3. Re:Someone's been watching Black Mirror... by dromgodis · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It IS a good idea, I've been advocating it for ages.

      I wouldn't use it to ban you from flying though.

      *You* wouldn't use it at all. You would be used by it, at the whims of whoever would control it.

    4. Re:Someone's been watching Black Mirror... by JaredOfEuropa · · Score: 5, Insightful

      First off, the points on your license are only lost because of traffic offenses. You don't lose points for tweeting doubleplusungood opinions or shoplifting. And in some countries you only lose points for serious and dangerous traffic violations, not for doing 90 in an 80 zone. Meaning that a string of little offenses does not escalate into seriousy heavy punishment when some arbitrary threshold is crossed
      Second, the points (and accompanying fine) are issued administratively, but in most (or all?) countries in Europe you do have the right to go to court if you think there has been a mistake.
      Thirdly, if you lose your points you are banned from driving, not from flying or from buying property.

      All this honours the idea that the punishment should fit the crime. The Chinese system on the other hand lets a number of small transgressions turn into a life ruining event. And since it bans you from a large number of activitites that are completely unrelated to each other or to the crime, this smells of cruel and unusual punishment and double jeopardy.

      --
      If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
    5. Re:Someone's been watching Black Mirror... by Joce640k · · Score: 3, Interesting

      As mentioned above, being antisocial is a pretty vague term and possibly treads on protected speech if you're in a country that protects speech.

      The UK has antisocial behavior laws, eg. They can forbid you from doing anything which has caused nuisance to others in the past, eg. ban you from going down a certain street from going into the town center.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

      However, I do think this would be a good idea if applied to criminal behaviour. Take shitty drivers off the road for driving like dicks, forbid fraudsters and tax evaders from holding business licences and being bondable, that sort of thing. Relevant punishments for relevant crimes.

      They don't already do that where you live? Weird.

      I'd take it a step further. Anything you do in public that requires somebody else to go around cleaning up after you? Points off your social score. Any sort of violence or intimidation of other people? Points off your score. Any behavior that puts other people at risk? Points off your score. etc., etc.

      Nobody's asking you to be an angel, be a miserable git if you want, just don't be a drain on society. Society has enough problems without people like you causing extra expense and cleanups.

      You can't stop yourself from being an asshole? Fine, but don't ask for anything in return. Starting with the right to vote.

      This would reduce the strain on the prison system if we just limit the freedoms of those who abused their freedoms, rather than locking them up. Only lock up violent psychopaths should be locked up, let the rest of society's fuck-ups walk around less-than-free with their heads hung low.

      Agree 100% there. The only people who should be in prison are those who cause physical harm to others (or other people's property).

      --
      No sig today...
    6. Re:Someone's been watching Black Mirror... by TheRaven64 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      ie. All the stuff that would rate you as an "asshole".

      All the stuff that would rate you as an 'asshole' today. Unfortunately, once such a system is in place it becomes very easy to use it to disenfranchise people who disagree with either the current leaders or the whoever is currently best at propaganda. How do you think the racial equality movement in the US in the '60s would have done if anyone involved in antisocial actions had lost the right to vote?

      --
      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
    7. Re:Someone's been watching Black Mirror... by alvinrod · · Score: 4, Insightful

      That sounds well and good until you realize that being "anti-social" won't stop society from taking from the people it deems anti-social. I think you'll also find that anti-social is quite open to interpretation and that the worst people will gladly shape it into some awful tyranny. Imagine what the white nationalists might deem as anti-social, and hopefully that gives you enough pause to rethink your idea.

    8. Re:Someone's been watching Black Mirror... by LordKronos · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It could possibly be a good idea in theory, but only in theory. Every one of those things you listed has edge cases and/or difference of opinion. Who decides what harassment is? At 2 am even the tiniest sound can wake people who are light sleepers. I'm not into sports at all, but what if I buy a TV on superbowl weekend because of the sales but discover it has some serious usability bugs that could never be observed in a store display?

      But most important of all I think is the opportunity for abuse. Have a Hillary (or Trump) sticker on your car? Look at that, your tail light is out. Hey, you just did 1mph over the limit. Your bumper went an inch over the stop line at the red light. But swap one sticker for the other and you could see the cops looking the other way for a 10mph-over infraction. You already have police displaying that sort of discriminatory discretion, but when even more is on the line...the opportunity to remove your political opponents from the voting pool...you can expect it to be much worse.

    9. Re:Someone's been watching Black Mirror... by goose-incarnated · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It IS a good idea, I've been advocating it for ages.

      Yeah, well your advocacy is deemed antisocial, so your score just went off a cliff. No school for your kids!!!

      The trouble with advocating authoritarianism the way you do is that it will *always* be used against you. How fast would we have had legalised gay marriages if we were keeping an antisocial scorecard? How long would it have taken to strike-down Jim Crow laws if everyone was kept in check via a non-court scorecard?

      Besides, you want these things implemented? Sure. How about I get your score into negative territory by complaining that your music was loud at 2am, or that you were smoking in a no-smoking area, or that you I saw you littering? With no due process how are you going to defend yourself when it's my word against your word?

      Take it to court? Sorry. Your advocacy was for bypassing the courts when issuing penalties.

      See, the thing is you think your shit don't stink, so these penalties would never apply to you, but the thing your advocating for (bypassing due process) can be used against you by anyone, not just those in power.

      You go ahead and get this implemented, but don't cry foul when you get penalised for blaring music at 2am even though you did no such thing. When you bypass due process, you bypass it for everyone, including yourself.

      --
      I'm a minority race. Save your vitriol for white people.
    10. Re:Someone's been watching Black Mirror... by Knightman · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The problem with this solution is that you get a society that stagnates and ossifies. It's a simple solution for a complex problem that causes more problems in the end.

      Anyone fighting for social change would be labeled as antisocial and suddenly their rights are heavily circumscribed.

      Those who think this is a good idea is the same type of people who want to treat the symptoms rather than the cause.

      --
      --- Reality doesn't care about your opinions, it happens anyway and if you are in the way you'll get squished.
    11. Re:Someone's been watching Black Mirror... by Bongo · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Yes, there’s the problem of fallibility, so punishment should err on the side of weak punishment because what if the system made the wrong judgment? and there is the problem of downward spirals, where a few small events are exacerbated.

      I don’t mind that they want meticulous discipline - but you don’t get that by ruining people in unfair and cruel ways. You get... you get the opposite. The Chinese system is shooting itself in the foot, as people will conclude that they already live in chaos, not order.

    12. Re:Someone's been watching Black Mirror... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      (...)

      Remember that everybody starts with a full score. You don't have to work to earn any privileges. They're only taken away after you're an asshole towards the rest of us.

      No. They're "only" taken away once some unaccountable bureaucrat on politician's payroll decides without due process that in his opinion you have been an asshole. Very VERY different thing from actually being an asshole.

    13. Re: Someone's been watching Black Mirror... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Ah, do you mean like making smoking/possession of marijuana a criminal offense and then using that as a basis to disenfranchise people from voting, employment, welfare, etc.? No free country would ever do something like that, would it?

    14. Re:Someone's been watching Black Mirror... by merlinokos · · Score: 4, Informative

      And when you kill a man, you're a murderer
      Kill many, and you're a conqueror
      Kill them all, oh you're a god

      -Megadeth, Captive Honour

    15. Re:Someone's been watching Black Mirror... by Trailer+Trash · · Score: 3, Insightful

      It IS a good idea, I've been advocating it for ages.

      I wouldn't use it to ban you from flying though. I'd only use it to affect your right to vote, to claim social benefits (government money), etc.

      You want anything back from society? Stop being antisocial!

      It's always nice to see the mask fall off the leftist lunatic.

    16. Re:Someone's been watching Black Mirror... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      You sound like a raging control freak. You know, like the kind of insane asshole who rages against small supposed infractions and lets it fester to the point he rents a truck and mows down bystanders just to show them who's boss. Maybe you should be prevented from driving any motor vehicles. Just to be safe.

  3. From the makers of the Great Firewall... by volodymyrbiryuk · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The Big Brother is raising his younger siblings right. Apologize or go to bed without dinner. What a great prospect for the future. It always starts with 'bad' people and before you know it you are labeled a terrorist for expressing your opinion.

    --
    sudo rm -r -f --no-preserve-root /
  4. Needs to be transparent by RobinH · · Score: 3, Insightful

    We have "demerit" points on our drivers license here in Ontario. As long as the system is transparent (you broke this law, -25 points, you paid your tax on time, +2 points, etc.) then it's not so bad. Post the account history publicly for each person. However, if the algorithm is a secret, that's a really big problem. You know all the Supreme Leader's buddies are going to have padded scores, right...

    --
    "I have never let my schooling interfere with my education." - Mark Twain
    1. Re:Needs to be transparent by Opportunist · · Score: 3

      You know all the Supreme Leader's buddies are going to have padded scores, right...

      You got that wrong. BEING dear leader's buddy IS what pads your score. Criticize dear leader? Down with your score. Praise him publicly? All is forgiven.

      Rest assured, you'll find a LOT of people suddenly applauding whoever is in charge, turning fascist, communist or whatever else is currently en vogue at the drop of a hat. "Public opinion" is, in such a system, more akin to an "official opinion".

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    2. Re:Needs to be transparent by sinij · · Score: 5, Insightful

      We have "demerit" points on our drivers license here in Ontario. As long as the system is transparent (you broke this law, -25 points, you paid your tax on time, +2 points, etc.) then it's not so bad.

      Really? What about...

      Not recycling enough -1 point
      Does not bike to work -1 point
      Ate junk food -1 point
      Does not exercise enough -1 point
      Smoked near school -1 point
      Watches online pornography -1 point
      Neglected front lawn -1 point
      Did not sign co-worker's birthday card -1 point
      Cut someone off merging into highway -1 point
      Likes to listen to loud music at home -1 point
      Some other trivial bullshit -1 point

      At what point would this become oppressive tyranny by points?

    3. Re:Needs to be transparent by nitehawk214 · · Score: 5, Funny

      Criticized the point system -1000 points.

      --
      I'm a good cook. I'm a fantastic eater. - Steven Brust
  5. Re:Some Merit by Attila+Dimedici · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Look at some of the current people in our government.

    The problem with your idea is that those are the people who would decide what your "social score" is. Do you really think that the people who covered up Teddy Kennedy leaving a woman to die would have counted any of his anti-social behavior against him? Or that the people who are angry about Donald Trump's alleged sexual harassment but were OK with Bill Clinton's alleged rapes would have evenly applied "social scores"?

    Basically, the concept only works if you have honest, trustworthy people to implement it, but if you have such people in positions of power, you don't need it.

    --
    The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted. James Madison
  6. Whatever can be done, WILL BE DONE ! by gDLL · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Whatever abuse can happen, WILL HAPPEN. If you give power to the state then it's guaranteed someone will come and use it in the worst ways imaginable.

    Socialist dream (tm).

  7. Re:Welcome to the world predicted in Black Mirror! by The+Cynical+Critic · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Considering this and things like it have been talked about way before that show was made it's less the Chinese looking at a fictional dystopia for ideas to implement and more just the writers of a fictional dystopia hearing about Chinese plans and adding it to their fictional dystopia.

    It's a horrifying idea none the less and only made even more horrifying by now having been implemented in the worst way possible in real life. Then again considering all the outrageous ways China has tried to control it's population over the decades in an effort to stop them from realizing the absurdity of their one party system this is probably business as usual from their perspective. If you can get thrown into some local Stasi equivalent's jail with nothing resembling a trial and coerced into confessing to all kinds of crazy things just for running a bookstore that sells books critical of the ruling party and system this may not even register for a lot people.

    --
    "Why should I want to make anything up? Life's bad enough as it is without wanting to invent any more of it."
  8. I Felt a Great Disturbance in the Force... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of SJWs suddenly cried out in agreement and were suddenly scheming.

  9. Re:Some Merit by The+Cynical+Critic · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The thing about planning any far reaching system is that you need to consider what the damage that can be done if people with less-than-noble intentions take control of the system and use it to further their own goals. It's not just the danger conservatives imposing their ideas on how you're supposed to live your life and think taking over the system, there's also their opposite numbers on the extreme who are particularly keen on trying to prevent people from having opinions that differ from their orthodoxy. If implemented as something run by the government this system is particularly vulnerable to politicians coming in and changing what's rewarded and what's punished to fit their goals.

    If I had to come up with a name for this, it would be the "Monkey with a machine gun"-principle as I think that explains the idea itself pretty well.

    --
    "Why should I want to make anything up? Life's bad enough as it is without wanting to invent any more of it."
  10. Karma by GrokvL · · Score: 3, Funny

    On a smaller scale, imagine the uproar if slashdot visitors were scored based on their comments, and even had their opinions hidden by default if the ruling party didn't like what was said!

  11. Re:Some Merit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Even if Ted diddo that, he simply wasn't emotionally equiped to deal with the problem and has to be forgiven. After all, he is a Kennedy and they are all high IQ geniuses. The people that did the cover-up are the guilty one by hiding the truth from us.

    See how easy it is to shift your social score to someone else?

    The other smart Kennedy fly a plane into the ground.

  12. Obligatory by little1973 · · Score: 4, Informative

    The Orville: Majority Rule
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

    --
    Government cannot make man richer, but it can make him poorer. - Ludwig von Mises
  13. Re:Some Merit by Opportunist · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The problem is in the definition of "misbehave". Because even the examples you give send shivers up my spine. And we didn't even touch the usual "praise dear leader and love The Party" bits that will almost certainly make it into the fold.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  14. If by throwaway you mean relevant and ontopic by gDLL · · Score: 3, Insightful

    If by throwaway you mean 100% ontopic and relevant and historical then it's because that is how we predict the future, by past experience! Of course not all of us, some of us are more pie in the sky type of ppl. Do you know the definition of insanity ?

  15. Interesting thing by rkordmaa · · Score: 4, Interesting

    If any western government tried something like this, every single citizen and their dog would know about it. I've asked some locals in China about it, none of them had a clue about what I was talking about.

  16. He knows if you've been naughty or nice by s_p_oneil · · Score: 3, Funny

    He knows if you've been naughty or nice. Maybe Xi is really Santa in disguise.

  17. This is frightening by DaMattster · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I could see a social credit score system easily coming to the United States because the big data miners like Facebook, Google, Amazon, etc. would drool at the opportunity like that for a new source of revenue. I'll bet even the credit bureaus are watching the experiment in China unfold and are plotting how they could implement a similar system here in the United States.

    1. Re:This is frightening by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      It already does exist in the US, in various ways. Ask any convicted felon about their experiences finding work, applying for credit, getting housing... "serving your time" extends well past the prison term.

    2. Re:This is frightening by Cederic · · Score: 3, Insightful

      You may or may not have transgressed the law. You can't afford a lawyer and you're facing 14 charges with a combined 48 years in prison or a plea deal to do time served and a small fine.

      You really think that should also include getting fucked over for the rest of your life?

  18. Re: Some Merit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    My politically charged comments were to show that Trump's political opponents had just as well-known, and possibly more serious, cheating and crimes.

    Unfortunately, the right-wing's failure to recognize Trump's own serious crimes and malfeasances is evident, as well as how the Clinton's accusers were guilty of many crimes, including Gingrich, Hyde, Hastert, Livingston and more. That, and how despite decades of trying, the right-wing still relies on specious claims like passing around the so-called "Death List" and completely misrepresenting situations like abortion or immigration.

    Not to mention, more recently, characters like Moore himself. And dozens of others. But what do we hear?

    Well, despite their claims otherwise, it seems that conservatives love to judge and condemn others who disagree with them, while being indifferent, apologetic, and even supportive of their own members behavior. Yet oddly, they ascribe all the follies of this kind of judgment to their nemesis, the dreaded liberals and progressives themselves.

    So whatever criticisms they say that might have some truthful character is undercut by the multitude of lies, hyperbole and hypocrisy that is coming from their own quarters.

    Perhaps if you were being truly bipartisan in your comments, and made more of an effort to emphasize the impropriety to be found on both sides, you might yourself accomplish some degree of effectiveness to your attempts.

    Now me, I could point out some of the follies that Clinton made, such as going along with the war in Iraq, Afghanistan, but then, that would require the GOP to admit the Bush Presidency was the one responsible for it. But they can't do that, they can't even admit they were the ones who started keeping prisoners at Guantanamo or that they even opposed Obama's efforts to bring them to trial.

  19. Re:Welcome to the world predicted in Black Mirror! by houghi · · Score: 3, Informative

    Considering this and things like it have been talked about way before that show was made

    One book I know of was written in 1948.
    And another one 6000 years ago where an all seeing being would punish you if you did something naughty. That was also the first reference to "Get of my lawn'"

    --
    Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
  20. Re:Some Merit by crimson+tsunami · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The thing about planning any far reaching system is that you need to consider what the damage that can be done if people with less-than-noble intentions take control of the system and use it to further their own goals

    That's the beauty of the Chinese system, Xi is already emperor for life. So that little problem was already sorted out first :)