Inside China’s creepy ‘social credit’ system that analyses internet shopping and social media use in order to blacklist ‘lazy’ or wasteful citizens and allow those who behave well to borrow money
The terrifying initiative, which has been rolled out through pilot scheme, bans low-rated people from buying plane tickets and sending their kids to private school
CHINA'S 'social credit' system blacklists "lazy" citizens who get into debt or spend their time playing video games in a creepy initiative that could have come straight out of Black Mirror.
Analysing users' social media habits and online shopping purchases, the nightmarish system also grants real financial credit to citizens whose lifestyles are deemed to be more wholesome.
While the social credit scheme will become mandatory in China in 2020, it is currently being tested in pilot schemes which have been rolled out through private financial companies.
The most high profile of these is Sesame Credit which has been developed by Ant Financial and uses computer algorithms to score people from 350 to 950, reports
Likened to an episode of dystopian horror series Black Mirror, Sesame Credit rates people on factors including “interpersonal relationships” and consumer habits including buying video games.
It appears the authoritarian one-party state believes that someone who plays a PlayStation or an Xbox is an “idle person”, reports the .
He was then added to the Chinese Supreme Court’s list of “discredited” people.
Wen said: “It hurt my business. My clients didn’t trust me. I didn’t get much work.”
Not only was Wen banned from going on a plane or a high speed train but he was unable to send his child to private school.
The same report published in February this year says that since October 2013 nearly 10 million people have been added to the same list.
As the mandatory 2020 date looms, President Xi Jingping has cemented his grip on power by scrapping the country's two term presidential limit making him the most dominant Chinese leader since the murderous Chairman Mao Zedong.
We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online news team? Email us at tips@the-sun.co.uk or call 0207 782 4368 . We pay for videos too. Click here to upload yours