News Analysis
As new technology is developed to track peoples’ behavior and generate environmental and social credit scores, some state lawmakers are sounding the alarm that the United States may be following China in imposing behavioral ratings on its citizens.
China has been working since 2014 to impose a social credit system on its population that monitors, rewards, and punishes people according to how much their behavior conforms to government mandates. In contrast to China, the U.S. government is restrained from imposing social credit criteria on Americans due to its tradition of constitutional liberties and representative lawmaking.
But some analysts warn that social credit scoring could come to America, not through government mandates, but through the private sector—primarily banks, insurance companies, and tech companies—and they point to ominous signs that it is already starting to happen….