Black Mirror IRL: China Will Ban Citizens with 'Bad Social Credit’ from Travelling

Ever watched Black Mirror and thought ‘that would never happen’? Well, eat your words, friend - because remember that episode ‘Nosedive’? The one where social rankings affect where people can live, work and travel? Yeah, well China is essentially going to do that.

The country has announced new measures that mean its citizens will be restricted from travelling if they have bad ‘social credit’, as part of President Xi Jinping’s plan to construct a system based on the principle of “once untrustworthy, always restricted”. Gah.

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Offences like smoking on public transport, using expired tickets, and vague-sounding violations like ‘spreading false information about terrorism’ could all have an effect on social credit, resulting in travel bans of up to a year.

It gets crazier - because a wider roll-out of the system will apparently take into account everything from how well citizens treat their parents, to the things that they buy when it comes to their ability to earn certain rewards and benefits.

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According to government officials this plan - and here’s a line that might well chill you to your core - will “allow the trustworthy to roam everywhere under heaven while making it hard for the discredited to take a single step” .

Bloody hell.

By Lizzie Cox