Two new pieces of draft authority on China’s social credit system, directories of data inputs and punitive outputs from the General Office of the State Council, provide further clarity into the system’s ultimate form and purposes. These official guidance documents present a picture of a social credit structure that is more of a bureaucratic interface for existing legal and regulatory systems than the widespread Western perception of a dystopian algorithm that uses “big-data collection and analysis to monitor, shape, and rate individual’s behavior”(China Brief, January 17, 2017). Social credit includes new enforcement mechanisms but is an extension of the law rather than an independent rule-making authority. Furthermore, the new draft guidance documents emphasize that all collection of data and imposition of punishments requires a legal basis.
Far From a Panopticon, Social Credit Focuses on Legal Violations – Jamestown
