China’s scary lesson to the world: Censoring the Internet works

[Deldavala]

If Alibaba wants to continue existing, they will do whatever the Chinese government says. Implementing the Sesame Score system was done at the direction of the Chinese government.

They are doing it for their own benefit aswell. Its a good way to rate the users, get more information of the consumers, target marketing and ofc since Tencent is doing the same they kinda have to.

The sesame credit is not as grim/Orwellian as described either. It is mostly used to give discounts to the users, targeted marketing and give incentives to buy local products(similiar to how they do it in the states)

[Independent voter]

They are doing it for their own benefit aswell. Its a good way to rate the users, get more information of the consumers, target marketing and ofc since Tencent is doing the same they kinda have to.

The sesame credit is not as grim/Orwellian as described either. It is mostly used to give discounts to the users, targeted marketing and give incentives to buy local products(similiar to how they do it in the states)

And if you post something bad about China on a forum, say MMO-C, your score drops.

[Deleted]

And if you post something bad about China on a forum, say MMO-C, your score drops.

And how would China be able to discover what he posts on MMO-C?

[Deldavala]

"Sesame Credit System" is a 3rd party online reputation (called Credit but not really) evaluation and tracking system run within the boundary of services provided by "Alibaba", the giant internet company in China equivalent of Amazon+Ebay(Paypal)+Facebook. While this system is based on big data, it takes in user's internet posts, the product you bought, etc into account, then produces a credit score, which is used if you want to apply loan from the same company, all this happens within the boundaries of services provided by one company, Alibaba. So it is not too different from Amazon reputation, or Reddit karma. The difference is the sesame score is cleverly named "Credit Score" and it has a range between 0 and 900, to confuse people, especially those who lives in the US

[shadowmouse]

With a concept straight out of a cyberpunk dystopia, China has gamified obedience to the State.

Once again, you keep recycling the same points, even when you know they aren't correct.

The Independent's article is based heavily on an article off of Quartz.

This part of the Independent article is from an ACLU article which said:

In addition to measuring your ability to pay, as in the United States, the scores serve as a measure of political compliance. Among the things that will hurt a citizen’s score are posting political opinions without prior permission, or posting information that the regime does not like, such as about the Tienanmen Square massacre that the government carried out to hold on to power, or the Shanghai stock market collapse.

Here is the ACLU's "oops":

I’m starting to hear questions raised (here and here) about the accuracy of the source on which I based this blog post. I did include a passing caution about my lack of direct knowledge of the source’s accuracy, but I wish I had been more explicit in offering that caution given the language and cultural barriers between the United States and China, and the scarcity of reporting on this system by professional journalists with direct knowledge of Chinese society.

Source: https://www.aclu.org/blog/free-futur...ning-americans

I suggest checking the (here and here) links directly from the ACLU article to make sure I've noted things correctly.

Here is the explanation of Sesame Credit directly from the Quartz article:

While it’s true that the Chinese government intends to create what it calls a “social credit system,” Sesame Credit and its competitors (of which there will soon be several) have little to do with such plans—at least for now.

How it actually works

Ant Financial tells Quartz that Sesame Credit is not a silly game, but the first system in China to incorporate online and offline data to generate credit scores. Scores go up or down based on five categories:

The first category takes into account purchases made using Alipay, and looks at purchasing volume, and the price of goods that are purchased. But the content of what one purchases won’t affect one’s score—in other words, your score will go up as long as you buy anything, whether it’s books or sex toys. “It’s basically the frequency that matters, it’s not what you buy that matters,” says an Ant Financial spokeswoman.

The second category involves personal information, like one’s job and hukou (household registration status). The company uses this information to better understand its users, and entering information results in a higher score, explains the spokeswoman. It wants this data because it helps the service be more comprehensive. But, she emphasizes, the scores won’t go up or down based on one’s profession. “Let’s say in China you have a Shanghai hukou. That doesn’t mean you have a better Sesame Credit score versus [someone in] Tibet. We don’t discriminate [based on] where you are from,” she says.

Sesame Credit works more like a loyalty program than a credit rating system. The third and fourth categories measure timely payments on bills and credit cards, respectively. Many Alipay users pay their bills through the mobile app and receive reminders through push notifications on their phones. Failing to pay a bill on time will cause one’s score to go down, and is probably the most important category, the spokeswoman implied: “We wouldn’t say that if you have a good career track or a bad one it will affect your score as much than as if you don’t pay your bills.”

Finally, when more friends join Sesame Credit, your score will go up. A score will not go up or down based on the scores or personal information of your friend group, though.

Source: http://qz.com/519737/all-chinese-cit...nd-mine-sucks/

[Shibito]

I mean racist and petulant is kind of overkill but you do you.

Says the racebaiter.

[Independent voter]

And how would China be able to discover what he posts on MMO-C?

They've firewalled their internet. The Chinese government knows every IP and URL you access unless you take precautions.

[Deleted]

They've firewalled their internet. The Chinese government knows every IP and URL you access unless you take precautions.

But actually checking every single page their population visited would take billions of years to sift through.

[Independent voter]

But actually checking every single page their population visited would take billions of years to sift through.

It's the internet bro, they have robots check for phrases like Tianamen Square or "Tank Guy". After the robots filter it, humans take a look at the best ranked hits.

[Deleted]

It's the internet bro, they have robots check for phrases like Tianamen Square or "Tank Guy". After the robots filter it, humans take a look at the best ranked hits.

If that's the only terms they're looking for....

[soulzek]

why is the world map pixelated?!

[Deleted]

why is the world map pixelated?!

Every pixel represents 1 mil internet owners.

[starlord]

this thread suspiciously reminds me of all those ones about russia...