Social credit or “social proof”, is not a Chinese invention, nor is it exclusive to China. It’s been around for a while in the West and has been growing steadily. Heck, popular radio talk-show host, Michael Savage, was banned from the United Kingdom by British Home Secretary for “seeking to provoke others to serious criminal acts and fostering hatred.” Americans are already accustomed to background checks, credit scoring, and business reviews, however this mainly exists in the private sector whether it be a Fortune 500 company or a local pizzeria. This could be interpreted as a form of social credit. You could argue that it enables people to share when a company does them wrong, but some abuse it and now businesses are extra careful and have to adjust not only to consumer demands, but even unfair government restrictions such as vaccine mandates and lock-down, both of which have destroyed many small businesses. Another example is Amazon reviews, especially book reviews, because some use tricks and other tactics to get ridiculous number of reviews to catapult their self-published works into the limelight, so it can be misleading.
Internet and wireless phone services, amongst many other companies, have been collecting data from users for many years, and this information has been abused by advertisers. People are viewed as just a number with data about their browsing habits, spending pattern, and social interactions. All this is used to bombard them with more “relevant content”, as Mark Zuckerberg would say. The problem is when your activities become openly available for everyone, whether you like it or not, and this has already been seen with the merging of social platforms. For example, having a Google account has pretty much become a requirement to use any device, and with the merging and/or integration with other platforms like Facebook, people’s information becomes seamlessly streamed into cyberspace for third party companies. And let’s not forget about the many ways people are recorded in the West such as closed-circuit TV, facial and voice recognition technologies, digital fingerprinting, cyber surveillance, GPS tracking, and vaccine tracking.
So social credit has already been integrated and accepted in the West, but China is a foreshadow of what’s yet to come. They’ve reached a point where a person can literally become unable to do anything simply because their social credit score is too low. Anyone, even celebrities, can be punished by losing points for anything the government deems as offensive. It’s akin to how the world is coercing everyone to get vaccinated else life becomes difficult.
Xu Xiaodong earned his internet fame for challenging traditional martial artists to fights and embarrassing them using his MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) skills. This angered the Chinese government, so they slapped him with fines and lowered his social credit score, claiming that he has offended Chinese heritage. At one point, Xiaodong was unable to use pubic transportation, or fly on an airplane. They basically immobilized him, preventing him from doing anything. This eventually led him to make an emotional video about the Chinese government mistreatment. He ended up having to pay thousands in fines to remove the blocks and social credit hindrances.
Censorship in the name of Safety
China’s sales pitch for a nationwide social credit system is to encourage ‘good’ behavior, but what does that actually mean and who decides that? Well, in essence, their definition of ‘good’, much like mega corporations, implies that ‘good’ people are those who follow the rules, fall in line, and dare not utter one peep against authority. So a person’s buying habits, social preferences, and even their whole lifestyle can be declared ‘bad’. The government is trying to act as a moral dictator by telling people what they should and shouldn’t do and how they should live their lives. Some things that communist China considers as bad behavior are buying too many video games, driving badly, not paying taxes or bills on time, listening to music too loudly on a train, and having debt. But do travel bans, slow internet, and being blocked from attending university, fit the crime? According to a report by the Guardian, Chinese authorities already banned millions from purchasing flights million times according to the National Public Credit.
The world is shaping up to be a dystopian nightmare just like in 1984 or Black Mirror episode “Nosedive”. Social credit and cancel culture are one in the same. Whether you’re trying to please a corporation or a government, any form of social credit system leads to self-censorship. People become fake, and adopt phony personalities to survive. At this rate, people will self-censor themselves even in their private conversations, fearing someone will report them to the government.
We have already seen examples such as the truckers who protested the vaccine mandates having their bank accounts frozen, and comedians being shut down because of a joke. Mentally ill people are telling you what you can and cannot say. These psychopaths want to control your life, and they need to go.
