SOCIAL

CREDIT
SYSTEM
What is the emerging ethical
dilemma all about?
• CHINA’S SOCIAL CREDIT SYSTEM ALSO KNOWN AS CHINA’S ‘RANKING SYSTEM’, IT USES BIG DATA TO

MONITOR AND ASSESS TRUSTWORTHINESS. THE GOAL IS TO CONSTRUCT A HIGH-TRUST SOCIETY THAT
IS BASED ON INDIVIDUALS AND COMPANIES FOLLOWING THE LAW.•

• THERE ARE DISTINCT SOCIAL CREDIT SYSTEMS FOR CITIZENS, BUSINESSES, AND GOVERNMENT

OFFICIALS. BY ASSIGNING SOCIAL CREDIT SCORES TO INDIVIDUALS AND ENTITIES, PEOPLE AND
BUSINESSES CAN MAKE MORE INFORMED DECISIONS ABOUT THOSE WITH WHOM THEY CHOOSE TO DO
BUSINESS.•
WHAT FACTORS OR EVENTS
LED TO THIS DILEMMMA?
• China being a low trust society with limited
credit information on each citizen.

• China having the largest population deals

with the difficulty in law implementation.

• Problem of lack of trust in the Chinese market

due to rampant cases of fraud
 WHAT ARE THE SOCIETAL
IMPLICATIONS OF THIS
DILEMMA?
Travel ban

As of June 2019, according to the National Development and Reform

Commission of China, 26.82 million air tickets as well as 5.96 million high-
speed rail tickets had been denied to people who were deemed
"untrustworthy ( 失信 )" (on a blacklist), and 4.37 million "untrustworthy"
people had chosen to fulfill their duties required by the law. In July 2019,
additional 2.56 million flight tickets as well as 90 thousand high-speed train
tickets were denied to those on the blacklist.
Repression of religious minorities

City-level pilot projects for the social credit score system have included
rewarding individuals for aiding authorities in enforcing restrictions of
religious practices, including coercing practitioners of Falun Gong to
renounce their beliefs and reporting on Uighurs who publicly pray, fast
during Ramadan, or perform other Islamic practices.

Exclusion from school admission

If the parents of a child were to score below a certain threshold, their

children would be excluded from the private schools in the region or
even national universities
 Social status

One's personal score could be used as a social symbol on social and

couples platforms. For example, China's biggest matchmaking service,
Baihe, allows its users to publish their own score.

Public display

Mugshots of blacklisted individuals are sometimes displayed on large

LED screens on buildings, or shown before the movie in movie theaters.
Other

The rewards of having a high score include easier access to loans and jobs and priority
during bureaucratic paperwork. The immediate negative consequences for a low score,
or being associated to someone with a low score, range from lower internet speeds to
being denied access to certain jobs, loans and visas.

Businesses

The Social Credit System is meant to serve as a market regulation mechanism. The goal
is to establish a self-enforcing regulatory regime fueled by big data where businesses
exercise “self-restraint” ( 企业自我约束 ). The basic idea is, with a functional credit
system in place, companies will comply with government policies and regulations to
avoid having their scores lowered by disgruntled employees, customers or clients.
WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO QUESTION THE
MORAL AND ETHICAL ISSUES
SURROUNDING INNOVATIONS IN SCIENCE
AND TECHNOLOGY?
The dilemma of conformity vs. coercion is central to address. The purpose of incentives
is to reinforce positive behaviours and issue punitive measures to deter negative actions.
Some scholars argue that this is merely government trying to use a system that feels like
a game to create universal conformity. It is one thing to reward positive behaviour, but
the introduction of penalties for “untrustworthiness” produces consequences for lack of
adherence to government-mandated social behaviours. How the scoring algorithm is
defined is a critical ethical issue because social values and norms can quickly be
overridden by pressure to comply with laws and regulations. Government-imposed
sanctions and penalties can become coercive if there is not an adequate system of
checks and balances. Issues of individual choice, rights and freedom may succumb to
government-enforced standards when the social credit system becomes mandatory.
A second ethical dilemma is the issue of transparency vs. trafficking.
The gamification of social status scores means that both your
absolute score and position relative to others is important. On another
note, public disclosure of people’s rankings provides points of
comparison and transparency. This can create a need for individuals
to use unethical or underground means to improve their overall score
and their relative position. As Rachel Botsman writes in Wired, “we
are bound to see the birth of reputation black markets selling under-
the-counter ways to boost trustworthiness.” Individuals with financial
means can use their wealth to increase their score.
IN THE FACE OF THIS DILEMMA, WHY
IS IT IMPORTANT TO STUDY STS?
The Social Credit System, it greatly affects the society as its
social score would define and dictate how a person would be
treated and what privileges and opportunities he/she could be
given. Without knowledge in STS, we could never take great
consideration of how these systems would affect society. STS
also paves the way to weighing what positive and negative
effects does this system brings and does the positive outweigh
the negative and if it outweighs the negative, possible
reconstruction of the mechanism of SCS could be given.
 THE TEAM

REFERENCES:
Kobie, N. (2019, June 7). "The complicated truth about China's
DANNA JANE social credit system". Wired. Retrieved September 29, 2020 from
GABRIELLE JOSON
https://www.wired.co.uk/article/china-social-credit-system-
FRANCES SELLOTE explained

Hatton, Celia (2015, October 26). "China 'social credit': Beijing sets
up huge system". BBC News. Retrieved September 29,2020 from
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-34592186

"China ranks citizens with a social credit system – here's what you
can do wrong and how you can be punished". The Independent.
Retrieved September 29, 2020 from
JEENITHA https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/china-
DANAH social-credit-system-punishments-rewards-explained-
DURANGO ALISSANDRIA a8297486.html

ROSALES