Time to stop comparing China’s Social Credit to Black Mirror
Spin-doctors have worked on this story for two years now. A closer look at the corruptible incorruptible Social Credit system.
To all of those that shared a meal with me over the last couple years, I am sorry. Sometimes I too, jump too readily onto the hype train, too ready to salivate over a sensational premise to keep a critical mind. You have all heard me making brushstroke comparisons between China’s new credit scoring systems (“Sesame Credit”) and Charlie Brooker’s depiction of a dystopian future dominated by score-based valuation in Nosedive.
A rewarding element of disciplined research enquiry is the frequent experience of being proven wrong. My initial foray into the topic depended on western Tech journals and political editorials, as well as the testimonies of a few concerned friends. Both sources of evidence suffer from similar blind spots. Access to valid and integral field-research is poor, as China remains a difficult country to navigate. Flying the sail of Western-label investigative journalism, particularly towards a Party promoted program like trust-score systems, is bound to lead to poor results. These sources also suffer from a tendency, even a desire, to fit the Sesame Credit story into a broader dichotomy narrative pitting individualistic freedom-loving America versus authoritarian…
