The predictable dystopian trajectory of China's Citizen Scores


Also: being friends with low-scoring people pulls your score down.

Liu Hu is a Chinese journalist who is critical of the state -- he was recently ordered to apologize for critical social media posts and then sanctioned for being "insincere" -- and it has earned him a low Citizen Score. Now he can't buy airplane tickets or property, or send his kid to private school.

When Liu Hu recently tried to book a flight, he was told he was banned from flying because he was on the list of untrustworthy people. Liu is a journalist who was ordered by a court to apologize for a series of tweets he wrote and was then told his apology was insincere.

“I can’t buy property. My child can’t go to a private school,” he said. “You feel you’re being controlled by the list all the time.”

China Assigns Every Citizen A ‘Social Credit Score’ To Identify Who Is And Isn’t Trustworthy [Ben Tracy/CBS]

(via /.)