cross-posted from: https://feddit.org/post/536301
The Russia’s State Social University (RSSU) has launched a “social rating” platform that claims to build a person’s “social portrait” with possible applications in future government policies.
Named “We,” the platform promises to determine a user’s comparative “social status” based on a survey that includes questions about income, family status, benefits, creditworthiness, criminal record, lifestyle and state awards, among others.
“The social rating figures don’t affect [a person’s] life, the availability of services or the career trajectory in any way,” RSSU said on the platform’s website. “But who knows what these figures will mean for you in the future?”
Observers on social media compared the platform’s name “We” to the highly influential 1921 dystopian novel of the same name by Russian author Yevgeny Zamyatin. [The novel “We” describes a world of harmony and conformity within a united totalitarian state. It inspired British author George Orwell to write his own novel, “Nineteen Eighty-Four”, which was published in 1949.]
Putinism as it is. Oligarchy and survailance.
Seems like RSSU is fishing for the government’s money.
It’s probably very badly implemented and doesn’t work as described. In a sense this is good, but my point stands.
I sure hope you’re right on it not working properly, for the common russkies’ sake
Russia can into tinpot dictator.
This is literally the plot for a Black Mirror episode.
From. Nosedive to be specific.
I think for was actually the right word choice there, because Black Mirror in no way came up with the concept
Sure, makes sense from that perspective. 👌
This is literally the plot for *China.
or, for an example with better writing, a Community episode
They made meow meow beans?
They’ve taken everything subjective and unspoken about human interaction and reduced it to explicit, objective numbers. I’ve never felt so alive.
Cool.
Cool cool cool.
good timing, its my birthday today
These students either designed it as a subtle protest or they are in serious need of some dystopian literature in their curriculum.
It’s likely both. A compromise between hoping to build something real in the half-assed world that is Russia, and between wish to protest against its half-assed totalitarianism.
sounds like kgb with extra steps
Well this sounds a bit familiar…
Next step is adding a scoring system with penalties for certain behavior and it will be quite similar to the social system that is rolling out in China…
That’s probably the inspiration, but like hell they’ll manage to actually build something as functional.
I wouldn’t underestimate the engineering competence of Russians especially when it comes to autocratic surveillance tools. There are plenty of Russian-built tools and web apps that function quite well - Yandex, VK, etc. The west does not have a monopoly on innovation.
Yandex is a good example, VK - I’m not certain of that.
Anyway, what I meant is that such kind of social rating needs to source data from somewhere. That means integration with quite a lot of systems built for the Russian state, which often suck a lot. It’s normal that half the time remote payments for utilities don’t work, for example.
I mean, yeah, they can. But if it’s going to be some nation-wide system for the government, the bureaucracy will practically kill this.
How do you mean remote payments for utilities. Buying something in Russia from a foreign country or the other way around ? Or just remote payments through Russia ?
I meant - submitting water counters’ data and such via their website and paying there. It’s not about payments themselves.
Comparing run of the mill government services with something as advantageous as a social credit app is not apples to apples. It’s not like they assign utility administrators to work for GRU hacking units. The people that build this tool will be highly paid technical experts. And there is no shortage of them in Russia. It’s definitely not 100% but there’s a decent chance they can cobble together a working system that tracks social scores for the vast majority of Russian citizens.
Social scores would logically depend on the data sourced from things working as I described.
But you may be right, of course.
The west does not have a monopoly on innovation.
Nope - but it does look like we have the “monopoly” of being able to call out bullshit openly and not fear falling out of a window. Or being stabbed.
Oh that’s coming. Stay tuned.
Well, until the President decides otherwise, anyway.
Luckily “the West” isn’t just the U.S. - it’s also France, the U.K., Mexico and even Australia…
True! I’ve been too focused on our local politics lately!
I’ve been, too. Even though I’m neither in the US, nor a US citizen… It’s scary right now…
You can see why all the M-Ls on this site want Russia to win their fascist invasion. Clearly the Revolution lives.
Some .ml fellas can explain that this is good, actually. Oil oligarch kleptocracy with murdering political opponent characteristics is one of the most leftist governments possible, so everything they do is good.
The social rating figures don’t affect [a person’s] life, the availability of services or the career trajectory in any way
unless you’re gay…
The social rating figures don’t affect [a person’s] life, the availability of services or the career trajectory in any waywink
Then what are they for? Like the government just puts up a leaderboard and leaves it at that.
There are no gay people in Russia.
shoots gun
Not anymore
So the credit score system in the US, but more?
How many hoops did you have to jump through to land at that comparison?
Nah. Troll trap. No fun.
Observers on social media compared the platform’s name “We” to the highly influential 1921 dystopian novel of the same name by Russian author Yevgeny Zamyatin.
They actually couldn’t choose a different name than the novel that was written specifically about this very dystopian subject? Did they use it as inspiration? Because that seems more than coincidence…
It’s a blocking method. If 90% of the people who search a term are looking for the social platform it becomes much harder to find the book. Think of it like trying to find archival news articles about a perennial topic. You have to wade through all the recent shit and then there’s 2 hits from the time period you’re checking.
Weibo and WeChat hide
Don’t feed the rusophobe Lemmy echo chamber!!
Make an instance that federates both with mainstream Lemmy and Lemmygrad if you want both sides - and trust me, you don’t.
So am I to take it from your inference that the Russian Lemmy site is called Lemmygrad?
You know what an inference is and seem curious about the world…that will not play well in Lemmygrad. Good luck and Godspeed, tho.
it’s just called that, it’s not meaningfully Russian. But also people exaggerate, it’s not as bad as all that- my instance lemm.ee federates with both and I haven’t run into too many issues.
Do your own research if you really want to verify that claim but bring a hazmat suit.
New feature is … Putin has 0 points and is the goal to go to?
The devs of this planet are lazy and rehashing content.
