Europe, Australia, and the United Kingdom are on the path to adopting a system that closely resembles China’s social credit program. This is not a conspiracy theory. These governments are already using tools that allow them to surveil, score, and punish their own citizens.
In Britain, authorities have rolled out vans with built-in facial recognition. They drive them around, scanning faces as they go. If your face appears on a watchlist, the police are on your doorstep. “Innocent” data is said to be immediately deleted, you know they aren’t telling the truth. Data is the new oil and government never throws away power. Once they know where to look, they can track your life.
Britain is arresting citizens over social media posts. Police officers show up at people’s doors. They confiscate phones. They treat jokes and opinions as if they were crimes. A meme, a quip, a political thought can result in prosecution and prison time, just ask Tommy Robinson. If someone in power is offended, you can be targeted.
The European Union is doing the same. In Europe, you can be legally held responsible for what you say on social media. The statement needs to be determined by bureaucrats as harmful or hateful. They say what you can believe and ordinary dissent becomes a punishable act.
Australia is now banning kids under 16 from social media. In addition, the government has strict laws on what kind of speech is considered offensive to various protected groups. The government determines which words are acceptable. The government determines who is allowed to speak. Conformity becomes the new normal.
Taken together, these are the building blocks of a social credit system. There are rules telling you how to act. There is surveillance checking if you did. There is punishment to make an example of you and keep everyone else in line.
Add to that the full implementation of digital currency tied to all these controls. A centrally controlled, completely traceable, digital dollar or euro is a government control over your ability to buy or sell. Click a button, they cut you off from your bank account. No food, no house, no car, no job. You are powerless.
If that sounds extreme, it’s daily life in China and think about what has already happened here in the US. People have been banned online. They have been shadowbanned. They have been debanked for holding certain opinions, for offending the wrong person in Silicon Valley or the regulatory state. The same forces would be more than happy to leverage compliance through your wallet.
The U.S. has been building up surveillance tools, databases, and monitoring capacities for years. We took a turn down this road in the aftermath of 9/11, with the Patriot Act. Mass surveillance became the new normal. Every app on your phone tracks your location. Your smart devices are listening to you. Your social media keeps a record of your social graph, your beliefs, your habits, your fears. Metadata paints a picture of your life more clearly than any spy camera ever could. And you think Tesla is a car company? It’s a Data Company. After the Vegas Trump Hotel Cybertruck bombing occurred, Tesla knew the bomber’s entire drive journey within minutes after the explosion.
The average citizen no longer needs to hire a private investigator to spy on someone. Just have their phone do it for them.
Artificial Intelligence takes it to the next level. It is pattern recognition at scale. AI can look for trends in every data point. It can start to predict your thoughts, your behavior, your risk score. It can even automate punishment. If you haven’t watched Minority Report in awhile, you may want to.
This is not about safety. It is about control.
Privacy was supposed to be a bedrock value of a free society. Instead, the free world is building a future where privacy only exists if you live in a cave without any electronics and a blanket to keep you warm.
The question is not if. The question is what we do about it and when?
Do we turn around now, while we still have the power to choose? Or do we wait until the system runs out on us and our freedom is stripped away forcefully?
Time is running out.
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