The plausible dystopia of a social credit system

And those are just cases involving social media. What about when the government and powerful institutions in civil society decide that certain political opinions are beyond the pale?

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For a recent and especially vivid example from a neighboring democracy, this week’s declaration of a national emergency in Canada has empowered banks to freeze and suspend the accounts of “Freedom Convoy” protesters without a court order and while enjoying protection from civil liability. That is precisely the kind of thing one would expect to see become normalized with the imposition of a social credit system. Add in facial recognition software that can identify individuals attending “dangerous” protests and other public events and we’re left with a vision of the near-term future that can look pretty dystopian.

It would be a future in which cutting-edge technological advances combine with some of the oldest and most deeply rooted social inclinations of human beings to produce a new form of illiberalism.

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