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China Bans 23 Million From Buying Travel Tickets as Part of 'Social Credit' System (theguardian.com)
China blocked 23 million "discredited" travelers from buying plane or train tickets last year as part of the country's controversial "social credit" system aimed at improving the behavior of citizens. From a report: According to the National Public Credit Information Centre's 2018 report, 17.5 million people were banned from buying flights and 5.5 million barred from purchasing high-speed train tickets because of social credit offences. The report released last week said: "Once discredited, limited everywhere." The social credit system aims to incentivize "trustworthy" behavior through penalties as well as rewards. According to a government document about the system dating from 2014, the aim is to "allow the trustworthy to roam everywhere under heaven while making it hard for the discredited to take a single step." Social credit offenses range from not paying individual taxes or fines to spreading false information and taking drugs.
That's what this bullshit sounds like: a bad parent, who never forgets anything bad their kid did, continually reminds them, and always suspects them before anyone else when something bad happens, always believes the so-called 'good kid'. 'Guilty until proven innocent'. You may as well just kill these people, it would be less cruel.
1. There is no concept in modern America of "did the time, paid for the crime" with regard to social attitudes and how ex-felons can be treated.
2. Say something "offensive" in public and watch a wild-eyed mob that makes a witch-burning look tame come after and try to make sure there is "no place in society" for you.
3. Now corporations are getting in on the act with Chase locking accounts because the person was a Badthinker(tm).
I'm sorry but please explain how any of those stops someone from getting on a train, bus, boat, or airplane in America? thanks.
Normally I'm all for bashing China, but
Social credit offenses range from not paying individual taxes or fines to spreading false information and taking drugs.
Seeing how we use actual prison for #1 and #3, and are working on it for #2, maybe they aren't as harsh as they sound with this ...
China is fast approaching the level of control that Orwell's 1984 describes. We're close to one security camera per citizen. Add total control of Internet, be it fixed or mobile, by the state, as well as total control of social media and payment, and you already have a system that is virtually impossible to escape from.
I am not fucking putting foot in the Peple's Republic of China. It jsut isn't happening.
"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
We already have it.
When someone has committed a felony or has been arrested (even if innocent) the action is on the record, making it harder for people to get jobs, apply for loans, and do things in general to help them improve their lives.
For a lot of criminals, they don't do crime because they want to be a bad person, they do it because they cannot see any better alternatives. Then if they get caught, and once they leave jail, even more better alternatives are now off the table.
As bad as that is, it impacts far fewer people than what China does; although, it's probably inevitable that we're sliding down the same path in the US unless some sort of regulation on how private data is shared.
Over here it might not be so much a government sponsored score; but one maintained by private companies.
AI identifies a tattoo on one guy on his facebook photo. Because on average the average person without tattoos probably does less jail time than the person with tattoos- he drops 40 points in his score (despite being law-abiding). His Amazon account shows he has bought a t-shirt with "it's 4:20 somewhere" written on it. He drops another 40 points. Wal-mart reports he bought a lot of beer in the last month (he threw a party)- he drops another 20 points. He goes to buy a plane ticket from Delta but the flights are all booked and so he is put on wait list.
A seat opens up, but a clean shaven guy who buys self-help books and metrosexual skin creams gets the seat instead; Delta could have given it to either guy but determines that the metrosexual is less likely to cause damage and cause a scene because he has a higher civic score.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
No. Just no. Nothing of the sort has been proposed.
Not on a government level but Facebook has been trying to share data with your bank account. All sorts of other private companies share data about you between themselves. We already have the first steps in place for a privately run civic score.
Why do you think Facebook wants your bank account information? It's so that they can place ads to people based on the money they have. "Check Into Cash" for poor people and "Apple Watches" for rich people.
Why do you think the Bank wants your Facebook information? You can learn a lot about a person by what they post to Facebook.
We've already got our foot in the door to a private version of what the Chinese government has started. What we need is for laws that make it harder for private companies to share data about you.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
No cartoon bear jokes. No Emperor jokes.
No 1989 Tiananmen Square protests links.
Don't talk about term limits.
No saying Taiwan is the real China.
No to books like Brave New World, 1984 and Animal Farm.
Dont go looking for quality anime & manga.
Once seen and reported a person stays on the no travel, no education list.
As the points go lower, more is restricted.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"