VICE News
4 HN mentions · mentioned in 4 months, 2018–2019
5:45 · 2.4M views · Dec 12, 2018
A VICE News piece on China's Social Credit System, including a neighbor-watch pilot where paid watchers record behavior. It covers rewards for high scores and public shaming or restrictions for low ones.
Cited as a visual reference in discussions of social credit, surveillance and facial recognition in China, usually with a dystopian framing.
4 comments from Hacker News
seeing plenty of comments along the lines of "don't they have better things to do?" please remember that there are coalitions of activists advocating multiple issues for civil rights simultaneously, and that a victory in one area (e.g. fighting the surveillance state) is neither mutually exclusive nor to the detriment of another equal or greater social ill (e.g. homelessness). In the meantime, enjoy these videos of what they're doing with facial recognition in China: (Social credit system) this video (broad piece on facial recognition): [LINK]
One method is that your neighbors may report you. In China, part of the social credit system is that your neighbors will report you for doing anything against the law or the rules. So they may not 'block' you from putting it up and getting internet through it, but try going to work the next day you may be blocked from getting on the train. Edit: Everything I said here was strictly factual. I'm not sure why it's so quickly downvoted so here is a source to back it up: this video . And one more, regarding the trains in particular: [LINK]
This Vice video shows what it's like: this video It's a Black Mirror kind of nightmare. Imagine spending your life sweeping sidewalks with a forced smile on your face hoping one of the government's informants will notice and write it in their book so that someday you'll be allowed to buy a ticket to see your family.
Based on a YouTube documentary I saw it seems like you can redeem your score through payments (officially to charity, but it doesn’t look like it’s transparent): this video Compare this to a prison system based on punishment instead of prevention, leading to depressing recidivism.