‘Black Mirror’s Nosedive Episode Is About To Become Chinese Reality

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Fans of the science fiction series Black Mirror will be familiar with the episode Nosedive, which sees a social media obsessed society rating people out of five after every single interaction.

It is an interpretation of what life could be like in the future and unfortunately it is very easy to believe that it could be just like that with people becoming more and more obsessed with social media. People’s public ratings can dictate where they can live, who they can be friends with and how they can travel and in China this scoring way of life is becoming a reality.

credit: Netflix

The Chinese government is building a social credit rating to test the trustworthiness of its citizens. It is planned that by 2020 the system will be implemented fully, although it is already in place in Suzhou city!

Every person begins with 100 points on their ID card or social media, and their number will go up when they do good deeds like donating blood, charity work, recycling or weirdly… by sending positive messages about the country on social media.

As a reward for being ‘good’, high-scoring members of public may benefit from cheaper public transport, free gym memberships, and even shorter waiting times in hospitals.

Just like in Nosedive, Citizens will also be punished if they do something bad such as a cancel a reservation, leave a dishonest review – or even more worryingly, if they’re just friends with someone ‘bad’ on social media – their points will also go down.

Low-scoring people may also face travel restrictions, restricted access into certain restaurants and even slower internet speeds.

The rating system had drastic consequences for social media obsessed Lacie so could this have similar effects on the lives of the people of China as they are pressured into being model citizens?