{"id":1363707,"date":"2022-03-08T06:10:00","date_gmt":"2022-03-08T11:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1363707"},"modified":"2022-03-08T07:46:34","modified_gmt":"2022-03-08T12:46:34","slug":"to-punish-putin-u-s-firms-develop-social-credit-system-that-would-make-him-proud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/to-punish-putin-u-s-firms-develop-social-credit-system-that-would-make-him-proud\/","title":{"rendered":"To Punish Putin, U.S. Firms Develop Social Credit System That Would Make Him Proud"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">28<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fto-punish-putin-u-s-firms-develop-social-credit-system-that-would-make-him-proud%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1363707&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/money-256315_1280.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<p>American institutions are taking anti-Russian sanctions into their own hands, further normalizing a financial social credit system that can ostracize users for holding unacceptable beliefs \u2014 a move purported to punish Russia but that actually evokes the authoritarian country\u2019s own system of tracking its citizens\u2019 political views.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/03\/05\/world\/europe\/mastercard-visa-suspend-operations-russia.html\">Visa and Mastercard<\/a> have suspended operations in Russia over the country\u2019s invasion of Ukraine, blocking \u201ccards issued by Russian banks from working in other countries and block[ing] people with cards issued elsewhere from purchasing goods and services from companies in Russia.\u201d American Express has also dropped its Russian operations. Meanwhile, tech companies like Apple and Microsoft have <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fastcompany.com\/90728097\/tech-companies-pull-out-of-russia#:~:text=Apple%20first&#038;text=Apple%20says%20it%20has%20limited,Store%20for%20markets%20outside%20Russia.\">ceased<\/a> sales of their products in the country.<\/p>\n<p>It could be tempting to cheer the move for targeting Russia\u2019s authoritarian regime and condemning Russian President Vladimir Putin\u2019s unprovoked attacks on the people of Ukraine. But the actions by private companies against Russians are part of a larger swing by U.S. corporations to <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/03\/07\/why-cheerleading-visas-russia-ban-is-a-recipe-for-disaster\/\">deny services<\/a> to those whose opinions they deem unacceptable \u2014 and that\u2019s exactly the kind of social credit system Russia is building to impose on its own people.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<span class=\"f6QzOr2pJFRwBE8m1H9lgsyoLnIfSuvv96ijazoNDM3hbwTVZXUEjB03TeLNKxaAkxeRidkYFG7ZnKVGDOyc\"><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">(12) You think this western (WEF\/NATO) compliance and financial gateway system they are establishing for all of us would not be fully supported by Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping?<\/p>\n<p>Ha. Of course, they would.  It mirrors their same system. And we are doing it to ourselves. \ud83d\ude32 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/r1W9eFf8vs\">pic.twitter.com\/r1W9eFf8vs<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 TheLastRefuge (@TheLastRefuge2) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TheLastRefuge2\/status\/1500262035300438016?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 6, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><\/span>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Moscow will use \u201cdigital profiles\u201d to track citizens\u2019 \u201cloyalty,\u201d according to a Moscow Times 2020 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.themoscowtimes.com\/2020\/11\/25\/russia-should-extend-coronavirus-crisis-support-imf-a72145\">report<\/a>. \u201cMoscow City Hall has since 2017 been collecting the gender, age, income level and relationship to other people signed up to its mos.ru website as part of the internet activity monitoring system,\u201d the report notes. \u201cThe digital profiles will now include information about Muscovites\u2019 violations, fines, debts and participation in various events, according to the cited documentation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Lest you think the system is limited to the capital city, Russian officials have <a href=\"https:\/\/www.themoscowtimes.com\/2018\/09\/28\/80-percent-russians-will-have-state-gathered-digital-profiles-by-2025-official-says-a63027\">said<\/a> that 80 percent of Russians will have such a digital profile by 2025 through the government\u2019s $53 billion Digital Economy Program.<\/p>\n<p>And now, with Visa and Mastercard cutting ties, Russian banks are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2022-03-06\/russia-eases-reporting-requirements-for-banks-as-sanctions-bite\">turning<\/a> to China \u2014 a country with an even more invasive social credit system. The Chinese Communist Party <a href=\"https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/china-social-credit-system-punishments-and-rewards-explained-2018-4\">tracks<\/a> its people\u2019s economic decisions and even things like being a good or bad driver to reward or punish behavior. <\/p>\n<p>Punishment might include anything from slower internet speeds to being barred from flying or staying in certain hotels. There have also been reports of people being denied higher education and having their pets confiscated.<\/p>\n<p>If you think comparisons between Russia and China\u2019s authoritarian credit systems and the increasing dragnet in the United States are outlandish, just think about how Mastercard and American Express <a href=\"https:\/\/www.americanbanker.com\/payments\/list\/when-rioters-attacked-the-capitol-these-payment-companies-were-quick-to-respond\">blocked<\/a> donations to Americans whose beliefs about the 2020 election were found unacceptable, while Visa\u2019s political action committee used the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021 to \u201ctemporarily suspend[] all political donations.\u201d Paypal, Venmo, and Shopify all went after people who were supposedly involved in the riot. <\/p>\n<p>Just last month, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau cracked down on truckers who were protesting Covid mandates, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/02\/22\/world\/americas\/canada-protest-finances.html\">freezing<\/a> hundreds of bank accounts purported to be associated with the peaceful protest. Crowdsourcing fundraising platform GoFundMe <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/02\/08\/18-fundraisers-aiding-riots-crime-abortion-and-genital-mutilation-that-gofundme-didnt-shut-down\/\">confiscated<\/a> millions of dollars from protest organizers. <\/p>\n<p>Previously, GoFundMe suspended a fundraising campaign for Kyle Rittenhouse, who was acquitted of all charges after he shot three men in self-defense. The platform also used the Jan. 6 riot to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/usa-election-corporate-gofundme\/gofundme-bans-fundraisers-for-travel-to-potentially-violent-political-events-idUSL4N2JN3IX\">nix<\/a>\u00a0fundraisers for \u201ctravel to a political event where there\u2019s risk of violence by the attendees,\u201d and those that \u201cspread misinformation about the election, promote conspiracy theories and contribute to or participate in attacks on U.S. democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Big Tech companies use their powers of <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2021\/01\/11\/big-corporate-uses-capitol-riots-to-push-communist-style-social-credit-system-on-americans\/\">censorship<\/a> to shut down users whose speech is deemed unacceptable, and to nuke alternative platforms from app stores.<\/p>\n<p>We shouldn\u2019t cheer U.S. firms for appointing themselves the arbiters of who deserves to participate in our economy (and by extension, our society). If they can do it to Russia, they can do it to you.<\/p>\n<p>But we also shouldn\u2019t cheer such actions because they move us one step closer to blurring the line between ourselves and the authoritarian tyrants we purport to denounce. If we defeat Russia or China by making our differences unrecognizable, we\u2019ve already lost.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n<p>\n  Elle Reynolds is an assistant editor at The Federalist, and received her B.A. in government from Patrick Henry College with a minor in journalism. You can follow her work on Twitter at @_etreynolds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>American institutions are taking anti-Russian sanctions into their own hands, further normalizing a financial social credit system that can ostracize users for holding unacceptable beliefs \u2014 a move purported to<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1363707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1363707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1363707"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1363707\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1363707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1363707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1363707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}