It’s rather ironic, because the very kind of “social credit score” that we were told the Chinese are subject to is has existed in the West and is being implanted in a far more sly way with things like tone policing; arbitrary accusation of rule breaking of ever increasingly narrow, convoluted, and subjective rules enforced by faceless mods and surely son by AI bots, bans, and even extraordinary lengths to hunt down anyone that “evades a ban”.
I just heard about that TikTok has already implement a censorship regime that excludes topics and concepts for which you get a ding on your social credit score. Not even something that was done when China was racially in control of TikTok.
Welcome to Schufa in Germany, the “social credit score” without which is almost impossible to rent or buy in most German cities, if the report (which most folks hardly know how it gets calculated) doesn't have the right numbers on it.
That's just a basic financial credit score, and you can easily rent without one (even though some financial accountability is probably reasonable to balance the strong renter protection laws here). What's so nefarious about it?
Tell that to all the landlords I have met during the last 20 years, easily is not a word that comes to mind.
Only my very first rental back in January 2005 wasn't required, however I would say either it wasn't as widespread, or I was very lucky getting the flat from a university student leaving the apartment and her father (the landlord) fancying me.
Most of folks on my friends circle have similar experiences.
The intransparency and the constant attempts to get access to more and more data troves. And the borderline extortionate pricing - it's not the landlords who have to pay for each score report, it is expected that interested renters pay. Close to as vile as the real estate broker pages where you are chanceless until you pay for a premium membership.
