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Social Credit System Creeping Up On You

Fatih Siyasi 1376 Views ,  ,  ,  , 

Social Credit System Creeping Up On You

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

Welcome to the Political News Report, PoliticalNewsReport.com . . .

You may heard of the social credit system that is being put into place in China. If not, I have for you a 2018 article from ZeroHedge.com that gives us the rundown:

China is developing a digital dictatorship to exert control over its 1.4 billion citizens. For some, “social credit” will bring great opportunities — for others, punishment. The Communist Party’s plan is to monitor its citizens 24/7 and rank them on their behavior, as the dystopian social ranking system will be fully operational by 2020.

According to Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), an active pilot program has already assigned a score to millions of people across [China]. More than 200 million surveillance cameras [as of the date of this article] are … using artificial intelligence and facial recognition software that adds or subtracts social points based on physical and digital behavior.

The data collected from the vast network of cameras is blended with information collected from individuals’ government records, medical, financial, and even internet browsing histories. People’s scores can oscillate from good to bad in “real time” dependent on the person’s behavior, but also the people they associate with can affect scores as well.

And just to drive the point home, here’s another article from ZeroHedge.com on the same subject:

“China’s Terrifying “Social Credit” System Has Already Blocked 11 Million From Taking Flights”
China’s terrifying ‘social credit’ system, which is a rating assigned to each citizen based on government data regarding their economic and social status, has effectively blocked more than 11.14 million flights and 4.25 million high-speed train trips at the end of April, 2018, according to a senior government official.

This is a form of passive punishment where “[m]isdeeds, such as late credit card payments, criminal record, jaywalking, using fake IDs, refusal to sign up for required insurance, and failing to pay taxes, could result in a travel ban for an extended period. The penalty for misdeeds when into full effect in May” of 2018.

And now our main article from FastCompany.com, August 19, 2019, “Uh-oh: Silicon Valley is building a Chinese-style social credit system“. According to this article, “[a] parallel system [to the Chinese social credit system] is developing in the United States, in part as the result of Silicon Valley and technology-industry user policies, and in part by surveillance of social media activity by private companies.”

According to this article, insurance companies can base premiums on what they find in your social media posts. Airbnb can disable your account “for life for any reason it chooses, and it reserves the right not to tell the reason.” And Uber will ban you if your average rating by the Uber drivers is “significantly below average”.

Also dishonorable mention for a company called “PatronScan“.  This company sells products designed to help bar and restaurant owners manage customers. You go to a bar or restaurant and they scan your id into the PatronScan system. A so-called “public” list is shared among PatronScan customers.

The company maintains a list of “objectionable customers designed to protect venues from people previously removed for ‘fighting, sexual assault, drugs, theft, and other bad behavior, according to its website.” But the bar owners and managers decide what kind of behavior will be included in the PatronScan list, although the company does have an appeals process. But it’s up to the company to grant or deny those appeals.

And if you’ll notice in this picture, not only is this person’s i.d. being scanned, but they’re taking a picture of this person, too.

And one more article just to drive the point home…

This from Activist Post, “Social Credit Comes to US Shores: Consumers Denied Services Based on Shadowy “Security Ratings”. Now this article discusses how an NSA whistleblower was unable to make credit card purchases, not because of her credit score but because of her “security score”, which was issued by a shadowy third company. Did you hear that? NSA whistleblower is not even being limited by the government in her action, it’s actually some company that is getting in on, what basically seems to me as harassment of this woman.

By the way, that shadowy company is called “Sift Science” and, surprise, surprise, was founded by former Google employees.

As always the links to all of these sites will be provided in the show notes for your own perusal.

Social credit systems are an end-run around the pesky complications of the legal system. Unlike China’s government policy, the social credit system emerging in the U.S. is enforced by private companies. If the public objects to how these laws are enforced, it can’t elect new rule-makers.

Why a private social credit system is worse than what the Chinese are putting in place

Now I know I can get kind of ranty in these videos, but I really don’t need to this time. If we go back to the Fast Company article, it highlights why this private social credit system that is creeping up on all of us is actually worse that than Chinese social credit system.

Social credit systems are an end-run around the pesky complications of the legal system. Unlike China’s government policy, the social credit system emerging in the U.S. is enforced by private companies. If the public objects to how these laws are enforced, it can’t elect new rule-makers.

While I’m not one to put too much faith in governmental solutions, there may be hope in that our elected leaders appear to be waking up to the threat that tech giants like Apple, Facebook and Google, and these other companies that we’ve never even heard of, pose, as this Reuters article indicates. “Apple, Facebook, Amazon, Google emails demanded in U.S. House panel probe“. This is an anti-trust probe of Big Tech that our leaders have undertaken. And, as the article points out, 50 attorneys general are looking into whether Google abuses its market power in advertising, as well.

Not that I think our leaders are actually concerned about the liberty or privacy of the American people. The White House and Congress have made it quite clear over the course of the 21st century how little they care about our liberty or privacy, regardless of party affiliation.

But America’s elected leaders do seem concerned, and at the very least they seem to be motivated by the threat today’s tech giants pose to their power and to them personally. Nonetheless, in this situation that can be an area of mutual interest and they might actually do something to reign in this dystopian behemoth that threatens to enslave us all.
On that note, links will be in the show notes, as always.

Friends, I hope you’ve found this informative and useful. If you have, click the like button and share it on social media. Also, click the subscribe button if you haven’t already.

Thanks for watching, thanks for listening and remember, the political is personal.

END VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

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Fatih Siyasi

Engaged in counter-propaganda related work.

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