China’s incoming social credit system is a topic that will likely arise often in any IST course. The government has green-lighted eight companies to pilot their intended social credit system, which will create a definitive “credit score” for all citizens based on various relationships and actions. For example, jay-walking can drop your credit score, and the possible punishments can range from not being able to get a loan to being banned from trains and flights. Predictably, this has caused an uproar in Western media, including a segment on Netflix’s Black Mirror. However, what many people fail to understand or recognize is that most of the Western world has already implemented similar measures, they are just less open about it.
First comes the United States. The Patriot Act, following the September 11th terrorist attacks, allowed government agencies to collect information on American citizens. Thanks to whistle-blower Edward Snowden, we all know the government collects our data and hides its purpose.It informs no-fly lists, which if you pay attention suddenly sounds very similar to the Chinese government’s intended punishments for their citizens. Additionally, the governments intended red-lists and blacklists are similar to President Trump’s Muslim ban. Credit scores in of themselves have been around for decades and have similar consequences to social credit. The real question we should be asking is: is it better to have an open information collection system, or hide it under the disguise of “national security”?
The United Kingdom does not represent much of an improvement. In 2016, Parliament passed the Investigatory Powers Act. It requires communications companies to store user information and records for at least a year, and gives access to those records to government authorities. The move was harshly criticized by many groups for essentially allowing the government to spy on its citizens using big data. Again, parallels can be drawn to China’s new social credit system and the collection techniques it uses. The European Court of Human Rights even called it a blatant violation of privacy and human rights. So once again, we have to ask what our priority is. When our governments at home are already implementing surveillance techniques, how justified is our anger and fear toward China?
Campbell, Charlie. “How China Is Using ‘Social Credit Scores’ to Reward and Punish Its Citizens.” Time, 2019, https://time.com/collection/davos-2019/5502592/china-social-credit-score/.
Isackson, Peter. “Reassessing China’s Social Credit System.” Fair Observer, 2 Aug. 2019, https://www.fairobserver.com/region/asia_pacific/china-social-credit-system-chinese-government-world-news-34990/.
Walker, Dale, and Siobhan Conners. “What Is the Investigatory Powers Act 2016?” IT Pro, 8 Aug. 2019, https://www.itpro.co.uk/policy-legislation/33407/what-is-the-investigatory-powers-act-2016.
The Social Credit System is a very common word now. Most people already heard it or learned from news or articles. Maybe most people do not like it because they think it affects their privacy. Unlike those people who do not like it, I totally agree with this system. I think this system helps to keep everyone follow the law. For an example in video games. I hope a video game company can try to create a special server for an online game just open to those players who sign up with their real ID or information in the real world. If a player cheats in the game like using some bug to affect the game’s balance, he will be banned forever and get punishment in the real life. The cheating and using bug will let other players have a very bad feedback from the game. It will be wasting time for those players who follow the rule. I heard the South Korea already have game server like this. The society in the real life is same as the video game and the impact of illegal behavior in the real world will be more serious than the bug in the video game. For me, I do not want to sit next to a person who always do illegal things in the public area in a train. Everyone wants to sit next to a nice person. Everyone should follow the rule and law to keep credit. This will be good for both citizen and country.
I have always found China’s social credit system interesting, as I reminds me of the episode of “Black Mirror,” which is stated above. Since that episode has aired and this social credit system became more prominent in China, I did some research, and found some of the pros and cons of a social credit system. The first and main pro that people often say pertains to the social credit system is that the government can easily identify people who participate in deviant behavior and punish them while protecting those who are good law abiding citizens. Another pro is that the social credit system will hopefully promote good morals throughout the community, making our cities, overall, a better place. A main con of the social credit system that many people have discussed is that it is an invasion of personal privacy. Many of the commenters on the social credit system believe that because of this invasion of privacy, the government will have too much power and control over its citizens. It is something to think about, and I feel that China is the test subject for this kind of society.
https://www.breakingasia.com/gov/the-social-credit-system/