The story here, apparently, is that the Chinese government is implementing a system in some way like the Black Mirror episode “Nosedive”.
In both cases, this leads to people suddenly discovering they have been unable to buy airline tickets because of a judgement about their behaviour.
But fitting China into a Black Mirror-shaped mould requires you to squint so hard you risk missing the real, arguably more disturbing, story.
Through the company’s app, you can (voluntarily) choose to be scored based on a range of things, including not only your credit history, but your behaviour.
Similarly, interacting with people deemed trustworthy by the system raises your score, while presumably spending too much time with ne’er-do-well gamers will crash it.
Your social credit score isn’t the result of other people judging you, but a representation of either state or corporate power.
Financial start-ups worldwide are developing methods like Zhima’s scoring system to help sell loans to people without a credit score. »
