The U.S. political news media POLITICO cited a censored document indicating that the state-owned enterprise China Mobile is attempting to introduce China's unique social credit scoring system into the virtual world in a new proposal.
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POLITICO cited a proposal indicating that China Mobile plans to introduce a social credit scoring mechanism for all users in its upcoming virtual environment.
A user named Tom in a virtual world of games or social applications who causes chaos and spreads rumors, the digital identity system would enable law enforcement to identify and punish them promptly.
Experts who reviewed the proposal in collaboration with POLITICO pointed out that China Mobile's proposal poses risks of violating privacy and freedom of access, principles that have long been the basic standards for most Western users in the online world.
China's social credit scoring system is an evolving infrastructure aimed at scoring citizens based on various indicators, serving as a controversial enforcement system used by Chinese authorities to punish wrongdoers.
The proposal from China Mobile has also been submitted for discussion to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), raising concerns in various circles.
Note: The International Telecommunication Union is a United Nations agency that sets global telecommunications technology standards.
In 2020, the Financial Times pointed out that Huawei is collaborating with China Unicom, China Telecom, and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of China to propose a new core network technology standard called "New IP" to the ITU, aiming to replace the current mainstream internet protocol.
This proposal has raised concerns in Western countries such as the UK, Sweden, and the US, fearing that it could give internet service providers more control over the public and warning against China's attempt to participate in setting global standards at the ITU.
As a result, some countries are concerned that this could pose a potential threat to communication data security and have chosen to exclude Huawei from participating in 5G network construction to reduce security risks.
Similar concerns have been raised about China Mobile's proposal, with reports indicating that China Mobile has not responded to multiple requests for comments from POLITICO.