« Maintaining order and security in the virtual world. This is for your own good. There’s no need to worry. If the China wants to transpose its surveillance and control in future virtual worlds, simply to better protect its population. The Middle Kingdom assures us: the metaverse needs strict rules to be able to develop under the right conditions. And the authorities in Beijing have quite a few ideas in this field, such as theidentification or the application of social credit. Blockchain technologies allow for the best and the worst in terms of individual freedoms. And by choosing to develop its digital yuan and a totally corseted metaverse, China has already made its choice. Let’s head for the other side of the Great Wall to see what our future might look like.
When it comes to social creditFrom a European perspective, it’s hard to imagine what this means in terms of monitoring the more than 1.5 billion inhabitants of the world’s second most populous country. Broadly speaking, citizens will be assigned a score that will vary according to their behavior in society. Debt repayment, various offences, criminal acts on the public highway… Each time, the score will be re-evaluated upwards or downwards, with the help of video surveillance and the big data. Real nightmare straight out of the worst works of science fictionsocial credit is a powerful means of controlling the population.
But not content with applying it to everyday life, the China would be happy to transpose this approach to the future metavers. China Mobilefor example, proposed that theidentification of users is conditioned by « natural characteristicsbut also « social characteristics. Behind this cheerful novlangue lies the idea of a connection linked to biometric recognition, but above all to social credit. Just as a bad Chinese citizen can be denied a plane ticket or access to a job, it will be simple to block a metaverse user who has not fulfilled the required conditions.
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… and would like the whole world to do the same
Needless to say, political opponents, human rights activists, union leaders and simple militants will be particularly concerned by this project. There’s no question of the metaverse serving as a sounding board for opponents of the central regime.
But not content with controlling its metaverse(s), the China would like its standards to be adopted by the rest of the world. This was the thrust of a meeting organized at the beginning of July by theInternational Telecommunication Union (ITU)a United Nations agency, at which Chinese specialists put forward a number of proposals, the main ones being the identification and use of social credit.
Let’s take the example of a user named Tom « who spreads rumors and creates chaos in the metaverse », we read in the document. « The digital identity system would allow the police to identify him quickly and punish him. ». Since we tell you it’s to protect you!
China would like to make this wonderful world a reality for all users of future metavers in the four corners of the planet. That’s why it’s so active within the ITU, and why it hopes to convince other players of the merits of its system. However, some experts involved in the work of the UN agency see through Beijing’s game, and are trying to oppose it.
« Imagine a metaverse where your identity protocols are defined and monitored by Chinese authorities. Every government really needs to ask itself, is this the kind of virtual world we want to live in? ». These anonymous words from a participant in the discussions speak volumes about the struggle for influence going on behind the scenes, and the risks ofa sinicization of web 3.
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