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?

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.