Western social media sites are not available in China, so I assume you are talking about Chinese ones? Everyone knows the government watches the internet. Every link to a website outside China goes through the Great Firewall which either blocks it or allows it. I have no doubt it logs them against IP addresses and those translate back to personal IDs.
The people of different countries decide whether they want to be sheeple or not and it seems that we have all decided that we want to be. There seems to be nothing which will wake people up and realise their freedoms are being or have been taken away from them. China has already had a revolution so maybe the USA or UK will be next but I doubt it. Folks are too busy watching their Likes and Friends for it to matter much. Yes, it is too late but if someone came forward and presented themselves as a leader and got the people behind them, then there maybe something which could be done.
Maybe you are that leader? Are you? If you are, then I can say I came across you in the early years on this forum. Like saying I knew Churchill before he was famous.
That means you will lose your perks and privileges There are no perks and priviledges. What ones are you talking about? If there are, then I dont have any already and neither does anyone I know.
I do understand how one country tries something and other countries follow suit - such as the Greek banks taking their depositors money and now other banks in the EU are doing it too if they have financial problems. However, my bank already does watch the social media and already will take any deposits over a certain amount should they have 'problems'. This is already happening, it is too late.
Really, there are few regular members on here and it would be far better to address your issue on a larger forum with more people who could read it. However, I do agree this is a worrying advancement in control.
-- Edited by qmantoo on Monday 28th of December 2015 04:41:18 AM
Coming soon to a country near you: The Chinese government, working closely with giant corporations, have finally figured out how to completely enslave its people to the State. They’re going to turn “patriotism” into a game and all of its citizens into game players. Yeah, it sounds silly but what if your “score” was your credit score? And the more “patriotic” you are, the higher your credit score gets?
You’ve seen the endless Credit Karma commercials, right? They talk about your credit score and how having a low one can hurt you while a high one can get you a great deal on car and house loans? Now imagine that your credit score was determined not just by how much debt you have but also by what kind of articles you post on Facebook?
What if posting pro-Wall Street articles boosted your credit score? Or maybe pro-tax cut articles? Pro-life? Pro-cop? Pro-government? Would you do it?
And what if posting anti-Wall Street articles made it harder to get a loan? Or pro-choice? Or pro-democracy? What if following liberal websites made your credit card interest rates go up? Would you keep doing it?
This is the choice that Chinese citizens now face as their lives have been “gamified,” or turned into a game, using something called “Sesame Credit.” Think McDonald’s “Monopoly” game that tremendously boosted sales every year. All they did was add a simple game aspect to buying food and they made millions in extra profit.
The idea behind Sesame Credit is just as simple but infinitely more horrifying:
Sesame Credit links to your social media accounts and monitors them for “right thinking” posts and rewards you with a higher score. Conversely, it punishes you for being “subversive” by lowering it.
At the same time, it tracks your online purchases through major online retailers like Alibaba (China’s version of Amazon) and rewards you for buying “good” products and, again, punishes you for buying “bad” stuff. “Good” and “bad” in this context being whatever the hell corporations and the government say they are. If this sounds to you like it would illegal in the United States, you haven’t been paying attention for the last couple of decades. While everyone has been pulling out their fainting couches over the NSA collecting their data, Corporate America has built a system so intrusive that it’s the envy of governments all over the world. And it’s 100% legal because we sign away our privacy for the “privilege” of using Google or Facebook for free. By the way, if you’re still insisting this can’t possibly happen here, The Fair Isaac Corproation (FICO), a credit rating agency, already looks at your profiles to see if you’re a responsible person or not. Sesame Credit is a million times worse. Do I have your attention yet? Google and Facebook already manipulate what you see in your searches and newsfeeds, and no one really cares. Facebook has already tested how much they can influence an election just to see if they could, and they found that they can. So can Google. Of course they’ll only use their power for good, said every corrupt overlord ever. It would take very little effort for corporations to like Facebook and Amazon to adopt a system like this. Can’t happen? Here’s a simple example I just made up: Amazon will introduce a feature where users that post pro-Amazon links will receive a 5% discount on selected items. Posting pro-union or articles discussing Amazon’s abuse of warehouse workers will increase the cost of selected items by 5%. Oh, and while you’re focusing on the fairness of the 5%, you didn’t notice how you’ve been steered towards buying products at a discount from companies that partnered with Amazon and away from companies that refused because now they cost extra. I’m just some schmuck sitting at a computer and I thought of that in under a minute. Corporate America has MUCH smarter (and better paid) people than me thinking of ways to make more money off of you. And yes, people will rush to do embrace this system. Offer a conservative a chance to “prove” that they love ‘Murika more than anyone else by posting “patriotic” propaganda articles and memes? They do that NOW for free! Now imagine adding real world prizes to such behavior. Your newsfeed will look like Fox News in no time at all. But wait! It gets sooooooo much worse! If you’re not nauseous already, let me take care of that for you. The most insidious part of Sesame Credit is that it scores you on how your FRIENDS act as well. Let’s say you’re a “right thinking” ‘Murikan, obediently posting dozens of pro-corporate articles a week, but your friend is a filthy pro-union liberal. Sesame Credit lowers your score because you associate with them. That means you will lose your perks and privileges unless you can convince your friend to shut the hell up about worker’s rights. Even worse, it makes sure you KNOW who is lowering your score so you know who to target. Social conformity is incredibly powerful and we’ll do all the work ourselves. No need for a tyrant to threaten us, we’ll do the threatening for them. And if we can’t convince our friends and family to get in line, we’ll just cut them off to protect our score, effectively quarantining “dangerous” ideas like human and civil rights. Right now, Sesame Credit is voluntary. You have to opt-in to use it. But, of course, people are. They love the State and want those bonuses. The competition and word of mouth will draw more people and Sesame’s grip will tighten. Then, in a few years, it will become mandatory and that will be that. Chinese culture will permanently deform to fit the model established by the “faithful” and everyone else will have to play along or pay a substantial social and economic penalty.I promise you, Corporate America is watching this experiment with great interest and if it works, they will implement it in the United States.
Here’s a short video explaining the most dangerous weapon against democracy since Citizens United:
-- Edited by Rarity on Wednesday 23rd of December 2015 12:39:41 PM
-- Edited by Rarity on Wednesday 23rd of December 2015 12:54:08 PM
-- Edited by Rarity on Wednesday 23rd of December 2015 12:58:30 PM
