Digital Dictatorship: The System of Social Credit in China

Abstract

The People's Republic of China is a country of advanced technologies, dictating digital trends of the future with the world’s fastest-growing economy. In the nearest future, we will become witnesses of another Chinese invention comparable in scale to paper, gunpowder, and the compass they once created. China is implementing the System of Social Credit, the system of total control of the citizens that will institute digital dictatorship by 2020. With the help of big data and advanced surveillance, the system will analyze each citizen’s behavior, assigning him an individual rating. Law-abiding citizens will become privileged, while the holders of a low social score will face inevitable hurdles and ostracism. Correspondingly, George Orwell’s 1984 depicted the relentless battle of the personality and the system, where the first is condemned to death. By establishing the System of Social Credit (SCS), the centralized Chinese leadership will interfere in citizens’ personal affairs, thus discrediting human freedoms and the right to individuality. Everything the Chinese people hold of worth will be violated once the state becomes an absolute; therefore, echoing the nightmare of 1984.

Keywords: system of social credit, China, 1984, Orwell, digital dictatorship, total surveillance, big data