China’s Freedom-Crushing ‘Social Credit Score’

Is your privacy under threat?

If you think your privacy’s threatened, be glad you don’t live in China. Facebook and Twitter are banned in China, so people use WeChat – one of the world’s most popular mobile apps. So, the government spies on that round-the-clock. The state also monitors the Chinese version of Amazon called Alibaba.

Why should we care what the communists do? We’re not in China.

Li Schoolland came to America thirty years ago. “After I came to the United States I thought, ‘oh no more politics. I’m in the land of free. I’m not worried.’ And after I saw these things happen I said, ‘no no no!’ I said, ‘I have to tell the American people. Don’t let this happen!’” Li survived the Great Leap Forward, the Great Famine, the Cultural Revolution. Her parents were doctors, so they and she were re-educated. “Mao said we shouldn’t learn from books; we should learn from the military, from the farmers, and from the workers. The poorer you were, the better you were. If you’re illiterate, you’re the best. The repression is not over. The control of people’s mind, people’s mouths, people’s pen never stopped.”

Today in China if you tell friends about certain books your message will be blocked. Even innocent sounding phrases are censored. So, I understand the titles of novels like “Animal Farm”, “Brave New World”, but "Long Live the Emperor”?

“Because "long live” means forever. Xi Jinping, now adjust the constitution, but nobody can talk about it.” They can’t even talk about Winnie the Pooh. “Oh, because somebody says he looks like Winnie the Pooh, so it’s banned.”

And now, another step more subtle than just banning things. The state will monitor what you say in social media and assign you a social credit score that will tell them how trustworthy you are. The government says this will allow the “trustworthy to roam everywhere under heaven, while making it hard for the discredited to take a single step.”

Some American governments already do something similar. Los Angeles Police now practice predictive policing. They pay a company called Palantir to analyze social media, trace people’s ties to gang members, and predict the likelihood that someone may commit a crime. People like that. They think it makes them safer. "I think they’re giving government too much power. They didn’t realize this is going to lead to more and more and more. There’s no end.”

I would like to know that there’s a trust score so I can know who’s trustworthy and who’s not. Sounds sort of appealing.

“Yes, we do want to know who we can trust when we do business, but those are market behaviors. We don’t need the government to get involved.” When government does get involved, bad things can happen.

What happens if you have a low score?

“First, you lose your job, or you never get promoted…your children cannot get to good schools. For Chinese people, if their kids cannot go to a good school that’s the whole world.” If they really don’t like what you say, they lock you up, and torture you.

But that’s China. Why should we be afraid? In America, every week on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, I challenge people in power. I say these things and no one punishes me…so far.