> I think Cory Doctorow is right to be worried that an authoritarian government could use reputation as a tool of coercion Not just "could", China is already d

> I think Cory Doctorow is right to be worried that an authoritarian government could use reputation as a tool of coercion Not just "could", China is already doing it. It sounds awful But Peeple is a modest effort compared to ‘‘Citizen Scores,’’ the for-now-voluntary service run by the Chinese government in partnership with Tencent (a huge social media and games company) and Alibaba (China’s answer to Amazon). Your citizen score is visible to everyone the government wants – buying socially approved items, undertaking approved leisure activities, adhering to rules and regulations, and socializing with other high-score individuals. Of course, not doing these things makes your score go down. Just being friends with low-scoring individuals drags your own score down, creating a powerful incentive to conform. Mandatory Citizen Scores are being phased in over the next decade [...]