China Invests In Social Credit System That Ranks Citizen Trustworthiness, Could End Up Splitting The Internet In The Next Decade

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Nelson
Keyword(s):  
The Internet ◽  
Credit System ◽  
Social Credit

scholarly journals The internet is leading the world towards forms of totalitarianism: How to fix the problem

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Klaus Solberg Söilen
Keyword(s):  
Personal Data ◽  
Private Life ◽  
Western World ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Credit System ◽  
The West ◽  
Social Credit ◽  
Pull Out ◽  
The Government ◽  
The 1960S

It is difficult to imagine intelligence studies as separate from information technology as we enter thethird decade of the 21st century. The current issue of JISIB bears witness to this integration with a strongfocus on big data applications.Hardly anyone today would or could do without the internet, but the project that started with USgovernment financing in the 1960s, with packet switching, and in the 1970s with ARPANET and sawcommercial light in the 1990s is helping countries turn into totalitarian systems where totalitarianism isdefined by a high degree of control over public and private life.Public life is influenced by hacking, troll factories, fake news/propaganda, and interference inelections. Private life is influenced by massive surveillance. To borrow the title of the book by Zuboff(2019) we now live in “the age of surveillance capitalism”. Business intelligence systems lie at the heartof this transformation, but so do artificial intelligence and robotics. And the trend is global.In the West the suppressors are mostly private monopolies (e.g. Google, Facebook), while in the Eastit is primarily the government that is snooping (e.g. China’s Social Credit System). Face recognition islikely to become as popular in the West as it is in the East. It is also easily forgotten that no city wasbetter surveilled than London, which started to build its CCTV technology in the 1960s. The system isnow being updated with facial recognition, just like the one we are criticizing the Chinese for having.Some forms of surveillance may also lead to great advances in our societies, like access to governmentforms and statements electronically and a non-anonymous Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), whichpromises to reduce corruption and tax fraud, and could be used for easy distribution of universal basicincome (UBI) . Fintech promises to be highly disruptive.We are moving into an Orwellian world of surveillance more or less voluntarily, often applauding it.“I have nothing to hide” the young man says, but then he later becomes a minister and starts to worryabout the traces he has left on keyboards. The Five Eyes intelligence alliance, or any other major service,can pull out extensive analyses of behavior and personality on most of us now as we continue to exchangeour personal data for access to searches and social media, but also subscription-based services. MostChinese think that the social credit system is a good thing. This is for much of the same reason: theybelieve it will not be used against them and think that they will do well. We all tend to be overoptimisticabout our abilities and opportunities. It’s not before we fail that the full implications of the system arefelt: lack of access, credit, housing, and no more preferential treatments. The result threatens to worsenthe lack of social mobility and increase the growing conflict between the super-rich and those hundredsof millions who risk slipping from the middle class to being counted among the poor, many of whom livein the Western world.

INNOVATIVE SOCIETY: A SOCIAL CREDIT SYSTEM IN CHINA

2020 ◽  
pp. 50-59
Author(s):  
Weichzhen` Gao
Keyword(s):  
Latin American ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Credit System ◽  
Educational Mission ◽  
Social Transformations ◽  
Social Credit ◽  
Road Project ◽  
Patterns Of Behavior ◽  
The One ◽  
And Behavior

The basic principles of SCS implementation are as follows: Formation of sustainable social structure and its operational management; Monitoring and correction of social transformations and behavior of the general population: transparency as a major factor in the life of an innovative society; Stimulating competition as a motivation for success. Due to the transparency of social life, different patterns of behavior in different conditions are published in the information space of the society. Accordingly, actionable life scenarios are made available to the general public, which is fulfilling an educational mission regarding adaptation mechanisms in an innovative society; the SCS system is a significant component of the national strategy of integration and consolidation of the Chinese innovation society; carrying out softpolicy foreign policy: The positive experience of the Chinese innovation society in implementing SCS is a prerequisite for expanding its area of application in Asian, African and Latin American countries, especially the countries participating in the One Belt One Road project. SCS covers all spheres of social life of the modern Chinese citizen, forms a sustainable form of accountability to the society for the content and flow of their daily activities, aspirations and preferences.

scholarly journals From Bulletin Boards to Big Data

2021 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-62
Author(s):  
Christian Göbel ◽  
Jie Li
Keyword(s):  
Big Data ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Developmental Trajectory ◽  
Credit System ◽  
Feedback Systems ◽  
Social Credit ◽  
Bulletin Boards ◽  
Local Decision ◽  
Set Up

Why do Chinese governments at various levels set up public complaint websites where citizen petitions and government responses can be reviewed by the general public? We argue that it is the result of two factors: strong signals sent by the central government to improve governance, and the availability of new technologies to promote policy innovation. To impress their superiors, local officials adopted newly available commercial technology to innovate existing citizen feedback systems, which presented a developmental trajectory from “openness,” “integration,” to “big data-driven prediction.” Drawing on policy documents and interviews with local politicians and administrators, we provide a chronological perspective of how technical development, central government’s signals and local decision-making have interacted in the past two decades to bring forth today’s public complaint websites. The contingent and non-teleological nature of this development can also be applied to other policies such as the social credit system.

The gamification of trust: the case of China’s “social credit”

2018 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-107 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zahy Ramadan
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Tax Evasion ◽  
Credit Rating ◽  
Rating System ◽  
Credit System ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Social Credit ◽  
Chinese Business ◽  
Area Of Interest ◽  
New Business

Purpose China is establishing a social credit rating system with the aim to score the trust level of citizens. The scores will be based on an integrated database that includes a vast range of information sources, rating aspects like professional conduct, corruption, type of products bought, peers’ own scores and tax evasion. While this form of gamification is expected to have dire consequences on brands and consumers alike, the literature in that particular area of interest remains non-existent. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach A conceptual framework is suggested that highlights early on the risks and implications on brands and companies operating in that particular upcoming landscape. Findings The gamification of trust that the social credit system focuses on presents potential risks on brand and consumer relationships. This in turn will affect brand sustainability vis-à-vis the expected drastic changes in the Chinese business landscape. This study suggests the strategies to follow which will be of high interest to companies, consumers, as well as to the Chinese authorities during and after implementation stage. Originality/value This paper is amongst the first to discuss the potential effects of the Chinese social credit rating system on brands. The conceptual framework fills a sizeable gap in the literature and pioneers the discussion on potential dilemmas brands will be faced with within this new business landscape.

scholarly journals “Social Credit System”: historical prerequisites and doctrinal grounds of the phenomenon

2020 ◽  
pp. 72-88
Author(s):  
Roman Z. Rouvinsky ◽  
Alexey A. Tarasov
Keyword(s):  
Social Control ◽  
Credit Scoring ◽  
Social Institutions ◽  
Scoring Systems ◽  
Credit System ◽  
Russian Science ◽  
Republic Of China ◽  
Social Credit ◽  
History Of ◽  
New Perspective

This article is dedicated to identification and examination of doctrinal grounds and historical prerequisites of the" Social Credit System (trustworthiness)” – a project introduced in the People’s Republic of China in the early 2000s, and currently being “exported” from People’s Republic of China to other countries. In the course of this research, the author analyzed the specific Chinese sources and prerequisites for the creation of modern social rating and control system, as well as non-national sources mostly attributed to the history of Western European political legal thought and Western social institutions. Viewing "Social Credit System" as a technique for exercising social control and oversight, the authors discover its origins in J. Bentham’s project" Panopticon ", Taylor’s philosophy of management, Confucian and legalistic traditions of Imperial China, ideas and institutions of the era of Chinese cultural revolution, as well as U.S. credit scoring systems. This article is the first within Russian science to study the historical and doctrinal prerequisites of China’s "Social Credit System”, taking into account the works of foreign scholars dedicated to the history of its establishment.  A new perspective is given on the Confucian ideas the ideas of Fajia (Legalism) School, which are interpreted as complementary sources of the modern system of social control developed in PRC. The authors believe that China’s “Social Credit System” and the related techniques of control represent a so-called “bridge” that connects “Western” history of the development of social institutions with typically “Eastern” political and sociocultural tradition. In conclusion, attention is turned to the positive aspects, as well as “shadow” side of implementation of the mechanism of “Social Credit System”, “reverse” of this process and all accompanying problems thereof.

scholarly journals Social Credit System in the People's Republic of China: normative legal framework and principles of functionality

2020 ◽  
pp. 18-53
Author(s):  
Roman Z. Rouvinsky ◽  
Tatiana Komarova
Keyword(s):  
Legal Framework ◽  
Legal Regulation ◽  
People’S Republic Of China ◽  
Chinese Government ◽  
People's Republic Of China ◽  
Credit System ◽  
Republic Of China ◽  
Social Credit ◽  
Legal Provisions ◽  
The Social

This article examines the normative legal framework and principles of functionality of the Social Credit System that is currently being implemented in the People's Republic of China. For the first time in legal science, the Social Credit System is viewed not as an organizational and regulatory technique that in one or another way is related to law, but rather as an independent legal institution relevant to the branch of administrative law. The application of formal-legal and comparative-legal methods allows describing the hierarchy of sources of the Chinese law pertaining to social credit mechanisms and procedures, as well as giving characteristics to major provisions of the corresponding normative acts. The peculiarities of legal regulation of the mechanisms and procedures that comprise the Social Credit System in PRC include the following aspects: sublegislative nature of such regulation, prevalence of joint lawmaking, focal role of normative legal acts of the Chinese government, declarative character and ambiguity of multiple legal provisions with regards to the Social Credit System. The author underline the specificity of interpretation of the normative legal acts of the People's Republic of China, usage by the lawmaking branches of moral categories in formulation of provisions for regulation of elaboration and implementation of the social credit mechanisms. The provisions of governmental and departmental normative legal acts pertaining to the Social Credit System are correlated with the provisions of the current Constitution of the People's Republic of China.

scholarly journals Transforming Society for the Better?

MaRBLe ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nadja Aldendorff
Keyword(s):  
Moral Virtue ◽  
The State ◽  
Chinese Society ◽  
State Council ◽  
Credit System ◽  
The West ◽  
Republic Of China ◽  
Social Credit ◽  
The Government ◽  
Social Sorting

In 2014, the State Council of the People’s Republic of China released a document that called for the construction of a nationwide Social Credit System (SCS) with the goal to encourage sincerity and punish insincerity. The system uses blacklists that citizens land on for various cases of misbehavior, ranging from failing to pay a fine to being caught Jaywalking. This research explains the design process behind the SCS and in particular why many Chinese citizens are embracing this form of surveillance. It focuses on three topics to answer this question: the historical roots underlying the system, the perceived lack of trust in Chinese society and the comparison with concepts from surveillance theories developed in the West. From the analysis, following conclusions could be drawn: Historically, the state has often acted as a promoter and enforcer of moral virtue. The SCS fits perfectly into this tradition. The most prominent reason for the positive Chinese reaction is the lack of institutions in China that promote trust between citizens and businesses. There is a severe trust deficit which the government had to find a solution for. Regarding surveillance theory, Foucault’s concept of ‘panopticism’ shows similarities with the SCS and underlines its effectiveness in changing and steering people’s behavior while Lyon’s notion of ‘social sorting’ is used to demonstrate the potential dangers of the Chinese system.

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