China’s citizenship score, or the Sesame score, is a way to measure the quality of a citizen. This video does a great job of explaining what China’s citizen score is as well as how the implementation of this score are not a good sign for freedom in China.
China’s citizenship score has been developed by Tencent and Alibaba, comparable to Facebook and Amazon, in partnership with the Chinese government. This score “gamifys” social networking and retail purchases in a way that measures the quality of Chinese citizens. Tencent and Alibaba track shared materials, social interactions, and purchases to generate a citizenship score. This score is called a Sesame score or Social Credit System and seems to come with no explicit benefits or punishments- yet.
Aside from social pressures, it is likely this score will affect the daily lives of the Chinese. It is likely that soon the Chinese will see certain jobs only open to people with a high citizenship score. In addition, citizens with a lower score may find it difficult to get a loan, obtain travel documents, or receive a fast internet connection.
The social shame and pressures placed by this system are dangerous for freedom of speech. Anyone and everyone’s score can be accessed at any time and you are punished and rewarded based on who you interact with. The Chinese government is building in social media pressures to society as a way to control the masses. Individuals with dissenting ideas will be pressured to change what they are saying or will lose friends and acquaintances. New and different ideas will quickly be silenced.
Some are saying that this system is not of too much concern or is already similar to some less obvious ways we are scored in the West. Within the United States, we end up being ranked and scored by social media, dating websites, advertisers, and financial markets. However, the involvement of the government in these rankings and scores is the real danger. Patriotism can not be tied to certain rights. Turning citizenship and patriotism into a competition will only further push China into a disgusting dystopian freedomless reality- one we were all hoping we would only read tales about.
Featured Image: Jason Howie via Flickr, available under a Creative Commons license.
