China's Social Credit System. Revealing the Dark Sides of Participatory Digital Media

Seminar paper from the year 2019 in the subject Communications - Ethics in the Media, grade: 1,0, University of St. Gallen, language: English, abstract: This paper discusses China's social credit system. In a speech on October 14th in 2018, American Vice President Mike Pence accused China of building "an Orwellian system premised on controlling virtually every facet of human life". These accusations refer to the so-called Chinese Social Credit System (SCS), a radical undertaking of the Chinese Communist Party, making use of technologies such as ubiquitous computing, big data and artificial intelligence combined with participatory digital media, intending to construct a scoring system for its citizens and corporate entities in China.

In the past years, China's initiative has been heavily criticized by leading Western media outlets and politicians, compared to the Netflix series Black Mirror or Big Brother and described as a sinister future dystopia. The reality, however, is complicated and requires a critical analysis. In a first step, it will be explained what the scoring system exactly is and how it operates, taking the political system and cultural background into consideration. Next, the implications for Chinese people as well as society will be critically assessed, and it will be discussed whether this system is indeed a dystopian vision of mass surveillance or rather an opportunity for a better society.