China is developing a digital dictatorship to exert control over its 1.4 billion citizens. For some, "social credit" will bring great opportunities — for others, punishment. The Communist Party’s plan is to monitor its citizens 24/7 and rank them on their behavior, as the dystopian social ranking system will be fully operational by 2020.
According to Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), an active pilot program has already assigned a score out of 800 to millions of people across the country. More than 200 million surveillance cameras are currently using artificial intelligence and facial recognition software that adds or subtracts social points based on physical and digital behavior. The data collected from the vast network of cameras is blended with information collected from individuals’ government records, medical, financial, and even internet browsing histories. People's scores can oscillate from good to bad in "real time" dependant on the person’s behavior, but also the people they associate with can affect scores as well. "If your best friend or your dad says something negative about the government, you’ll lose points too," the ABC reports.