ColdFusion - Big Brother: China Installment!

Starting point is 00:00:00 Hey everyone, so I've got a book coming out later this month. You can check it out or pre-order it in the description below. Thanks to all of you who have pre-ordered it already. You are watching Cold Fusion TV. Hi, welcome to another Cold Fusion video. There's something big happening in China right now. Technology is being used like never before to mould a society. In this episode, we'll see exactly what's going on inside the closed doors of China. Buckle up for a wild ride.

Starting point is 00:00:27 On March 11, 2018, 2,964 delegates walked into the Great Hall of the People in Beijing at the annual meeting of the National People's Congress. A staggering 99.8% of them voted to abolish the legislation in China's constitution, which limits the sitting president to serve two terms. This allows for the current president, Xi Jinping, to rule indefinitely. This overwhelming 99.8% vote is an example of the control that, one man and his party have on China. But the government itself isn't the only thing under tight control in China, so is the public and technology plays a big part. WeChat, a Chinese messaging service, scored 0 out of 100 by Amnesty International for Security,

Starting point is 00:01:20 concluding that WeChat is subject to both, quote, censorship and surveillance. WeChat has over 1 billion users with 500 million users in China. This equates to just over 1 in 3 people in China using the air. app. WeChat even admits that it releases personal data used through the app to the Chinese government in compliance with, quote, applicable laws or regulations. But the thing is, we chat isn't just a messaging app. It serves email, banking. It's also a social platform. You can order taxis, pay electricity bills, and much more without ever leaving the app. So basically, one in three Chinese, 500 million people use Wii chat for everything and the Chinese government can see it all.

Starting point is 00:02:04 So, what does the government do with all of this data? Well, cases are hard to come by in a country which has the persistent suppression of media. However, the implications are massive. From censorship to deterring anti-government protests to using the heat map feature which tracks all of the user's GPS locations, the Chinese government can benefit an enormous amount by this vast array of information. As the proverb goes, knowledge is power. Chinese hardware companies such as Huawei and ZTE have fallen under suspicion.

Starting point is 00:02:34 This is because the Chinese government has the ability to request user information from any Chinese company the same way they do with WeChat. And while some experts say that this wouldn't affect the average person, the seriousness of China's potential to use this hardware for its own purposes was highlighted in early 2018. Six major US intelligence agencies including the FBI, NSA and CIA, unanimously agreed that private US citizens are not advised to use. are not advised to use Huawei or ZTE products. It's not like these agencies have the best track record themselves. Do you think they're telling the truth, or are lying,

Starting point is 00:03:07 or do you think that the truth is somewhere in the middle? I'll put up a live poll here. So why can't Chinese people just not buy a mobile device or an app made by a Chinese company? In reality, it's easier said than done, even if you boycotted using a phone, the Chinese government's monitoring goes way beyond the devices in your hand. There are 200 million surveillance cameras in use in China, approximately one for every seven people. In early 2018, these cameras even

Starting point is 00:03:39 entered the classroom to monitor the facial expressions and attentiveness of students. Since 2015, China has embarked on a project to create the most powerful facial recognition system ever seen, with the goals to recognize 90% of citizens within three seconds of recording. While it hasn't reached these levels yet, it's been used to catch J-walkers, unlicensed drivers, and pick out wanted fugitives in crowds. The government uses facial recognition along with an outdoor screen to shame J-walkers by posting their government ID on the screen after they've jaywalked. The intent is to shame individuals as their friends, family and co-workers will be able to see

Starting point is 00:04:16 their faces on the screen, much like some restaurants pin up photos of customers who have dined without paying. The idea of shaming people into conforming is not an isolated incident in China. The Chinese government introduced a social credit system which has been tested on 6% of the population currently. It is anticipated to be completely in place by 2020. Now, if you've seen the Black Mirror episode Nosedive, you'll know that it's about a world where a universal social credit system allows people to rate others depending on even the smaller social interactions. The score determines your service for flights, what home loans you get offered, what car you can rent, etc.

Starting point is 00:04:55 In the Black Mirror episode, the result was that everyone's interactions ended up being fake and two-faced and the system changed the behaviour of society in a fundamental way. This is essentially what's happening in China, down to the security of loans and being allowed to board flights. It's eerily similar to Black Mirror. In 2018, a list of 169 severely discredited people was released by the Chinese government. The people on the list were subsequently banned from taking flights or trains for a full year. Further, a total 9 million people with low credit scores have been barred from buying airline tickets or first-class train tickets for various periods of time. some for simple acts such as taking a cigarette lighter on a plane, smoking on a train, or failure to pay fines. Louis Hu was an investigative journalist in China.

Starting point is 00:05:42 He was listed as a dishonest person for losing a defamation lawsuit after he accused a high-ranking politician of corruption. After being detained for almost a year, he lost his case and social standing. Apart from restrictions in buying travel tickets, Mr. Liu has been banned from buying property, staying in luxury hotels, and even banned from sending his nine-year-old daughter to a private school. If people wish to improve their social credit score, they can participate in pro-social activities, such as helping the elderly, donating blood and volunteering. The program, as it currently stands, is a pilot test,

Starting point is 00:06:15 and the specifics may change in the full implementation. But interestingly, according to a study from the University of Berlin, a distinguished German research university, approximately 80% of internet-connected citizens in China approve of the system. This acceptance seems to me to be part of Chinese culture. Many Chinese see the system as less of an installment for surveillance and more of a means to encourage honesty. Good credit scores give citizens access to financial support,

Starting point is 00:06:43 priority to schools and discounts on public tolls. Despite this, a manoevolence underlines this program and there is a large potential for abuse by authorities. It's not a stretch to imagine the government using this tool to exert more control over the population as a whole. Looking at this from a distance, Xi Jinping appears to practice control of the government in one hand and the Chinese people in the other.

Starting point is 00:07:08 While technology can be a tool for a more transparent and open world, this might not be the case in China. Even the internet, a tool around the world which is used for sharing information and knowledge, is being suppressed in China. It is ranked worst in the world for online freedom out of 65 countries, worse than Iran, Syria, Cuba and Saudi Arabia. The censored Chinese internet restricts the access of 800,000,

Starting point is 00:07:30 million users. Prominent sites that are blocked include Google, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, WhatsApp and the New York Times. A 2017 Harvard study estimates the government uses social influences to post 448 million pro-government comments each year. According to Bloomberg News, the Chinese government employs 100,000 people to enforce censorship. To give you an idea how ridiculous this can get, even Winnie the Pooh was temporarily censored after internet trolls compared the fictional bear character to the president. Of course, there are ways to get around these firewalls, such as web proxies and VPNs. However, the average person may find it difficult to figure out how to do this safely, and it's not a stretch of the imagination to think that trying to bypass the firewall

Starting point is 00:08:15 could result in you being publicly shamed and your photo ending up on a public board, or a decline in your future social credit rating. I like to think that technology can bring us closer, and can actually be a great benefit to society. This is if it's used for the right reasons. it's increasingly becoming a double-edged sword. Surveillance and control are two major pitfalls. Most people watching this video are Westerners from the outside looking in, and honestly, what do we know about intimate Chinese culture? I wasn't expecting so many citizens to actually approve such measures.

Starting point is 00:08:47 The Chinese government may ultimately use this control of technology for good rather than evil. But for me personally, molding a person's behavior by use of force is something I don't agree with and could have some unintended consequences. All in all, time will tell, but one thing. is certain. Technology is a very powerful tool. With surveillance and censorship becoming an even greater issue, will our governments go down the same road? For example, very recently in Australia where I live, a bill was passed by the Senate allowing the government and security agencies to have greater powers to get access to encrypted messages of criminal suspects. In some cases,

Starting point is 00:09:25 they'll be able to demand companies to build new capabilities to allow them access. I've been flooded with messages on this topic by fellow Australians, so I think I'll do a video on it soon. On the same note of technology going awry, I do have another video on the darker side of social media and how it's negatively affecting society. I'll leave it in the description. Okay, so that just about wraps up our look at China. Do you agree with the reports of Chinese citizen saying that this can be a good thing? Or do you think so much monitoring and control is ultimately leading down a bad road? Let me know what you think in the comments section below. Thanks for watching. This has been to GoGo, you've been watching Cold Fusion.

Starting point is 00:10:00 If you've just stumbled across this channel, feel free to subscribe. And I'll see you again soon. for the next video. Cheers guys. Have a good one. Cold fusion. It's new thinking.

ColdFusion - Big Brother: China Installment!

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