Is social credit monitoring and ‘deboosting’ paving the way for something more sinister?

Chongqing, China Credit: Ted McGrath/Flickr/Creative Commons

No one could have believed it, but we are starting to see the unfolding of an ancient prophecy given the Apostle John who had been banished on the Mediterranean Island of Patmos somewhere around 65-85 AD.

In his vision of the end times, John saw a time coming when people would unable to buy or sell if they didn’t take the mark of the beast:

¹⁶He also caused everyone (small and great, rich and poor, free and slave) to obtain a mark on their right hand or on their forehead. ¹⁷Thus no one was allowed to buy or sell things unless he bore the mark of the beast—that is, his name or his number. (Revelation 13:16-17 NET)

Though what we see happening today is not necessarily a direct fulfillment of this prophecy, it may be paving the way for what is to eventually come.

An English newspaper, The Guardian, recently reported that as part of a “social credit” system being set up by the Chinese government, it is stopping people from buying and selling. Through its “social credit” system, Chinese bureaucrats monitor all online activity of its citizens and through millions of cameras monitor their off-line activity as well and award and remove points accordingly.

When people are driving, they regularly pass under huge banks of cameras that are taking pictures of people (note this is in addition to video cameras) trying to find out if people are smoking, have their seat belt buckled or using their phones while they are driving. If you are caught you lose points.

If you are member of the communist party you gain points. Go to church lose points.

According to a report by China’s National Public Credit Information Centre, because of low social credit scores, in 2018 the Communist government stopped citizens from buying 17.7 million flights. The report added that 23 million Chinese can no longer buy plane or rail tickets because of a bad social credit rating.

In addition, the government is also stopping people with low scores from buying property or even investments and some Chinese businesses can no longer bid on contracts. Simply, the government is limiting people’s ability to buy and sell.

And it is also being reported that the Chinese government is also monitoring the online behavior of foreign corporations that could potentially impact their ability to do business in China.

It is a Orwellian state, but it is not limited to just government.

A recent investigation by Project Veritas alleges that Facebook is deboosting Conservative groups which purposefully limits the number of people who can view their Facebook live shows.

A former Facebook employee told Veritas, that she has seen the social media corporation tag the live video streams of Conservative groups with “ActionDeboostLiveDistribution” that allegedly limits the show’s appearance on the timelines of people who have signed up with the group. She specifically saw The Crowder Show and a conservative news site Daily Caller being singled out.

The whistle-blower has no idea if Facebook targeted other Conservative groups.

According to Project Veritas director James O’Keefe, this deboosting disables a live stream’s share button and notification feature that lets people know a stream is available, thus severely restricting how many people view the livestream.

And what is even worse, it is all being done in secret and Conservative groups are not even aware this was happening to their videos. The Crowder Show reported it had unusually low viewership numbers based on the number of followers they have, but thought it was doing something wrong.

So while some Conservative groups were spending thousands of dollars buying Facebook ads to promote their pages, it appears in some instances Facebook was in turn limiting visibility. Of course, these censorship actions are indirectly affecting these groups financially.

There are concerns Christian groups, if they haven’t already been affected, may be next.