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.]
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…
Weibo and WeChat hide
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.
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.
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.
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…
That’s a monopoly I appreciate. Although it’s marginal depending on a number of factors.
I see the North Korea visit was pretty useful
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…
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Then what are they for? Like the government just puts up a leaderboard and leaves it at that.
“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?”
Well that’s a relief…
When was the last time an entity that generated stats about someone didn’t end up with those stats being used to the detriment of the individual - or at the very least for the profit of another?
There was me thinking it could be used for something sinister.
“But who knows what these figures will mean for you in the future?”
Well that’s not ominous at all
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. 👌
or, for an example with better writing, a Community episode
Let’s see how the Make Russia China campaign goes!
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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.
I give this news 5 MeowMeowBeenz.
Oh shit it’s meow meow beans
People keep commenting this. What’s the context?
It’s a from a Community episode.
…but who knows…
Yeeaaaahhhhh, about that. We are totally not going the China way, its just that we are because fuck you.
Russia is a maffia state and should be dismantled, prove me wrong.
We are totally not going the China way
The thing that allows China (and increasingly Russia) to function is the domestic industrialization and steadily rising standard of living that makes these governments popular back home. Their surveillance states exist to gatekeep access to the higher ranks of industrial control and economic authority.
The NATO block has largely divested of its industrial base and focused entirely on industrial imports to sustain the respective economies. Our surveillance state is far more concerned with enforcing a social caste system and propping up an increasingly fragile financial system.
Russia is a maffia state
I’ve heard it described as a glorified gas station. But that was 20 years ago, when the Russians were pivoting to mirror the Saudi petro states. Now that they’ve been cut off from the US/UK banking system and the third world cheap labor import network, they’ve heavily reinvested in aerospace, automotives, and other manufactured goods.
The end result is a Russian economy that is outpacing all other “advanced economies” according to the IMF, with the fastest industrial growth its enjoyed in 18 years.
They’re not just a bunch of aging mafiosos shaking down local businesses for spare change. They’re a trillion dollar economy with vast mineral wealth, enormous capital stocks, and a highly educated labor force. And they’re reasserting themselves in a way they haven’t done since glasnost and the end of the USSR.
Are you joking or are you a shill? All of Western world has multiple protections and amenities in place firmly yet. If you talkn about economy, where is the money? I mean we would not have stories about soldiers being asked to use tampons, dealing with North Korea out of all countries. Are you sure you are talking about v same russia we are seeing in 2024?
I linked directly to the IMF Report. Is the International Monetary Fund a shill for the Russian government, too?
Omg, the RSSU, lmao. How is this not the Onion?
What’s wrong with RSS-- Oh. Well, Putinism is opposite of communism.
One could argue that the USSR as a dictatorship is not much different than modern Russia as a dictatorship, and that claims of communism contradict the reality of the Stalin era, but there are certainly a lot of nuance that I’m avoiding with such a statement.
One could argue that the USSR as a dictatorship is not much different than modern Russia as a dictatorship
Totalitarian and autoritarian dictatorships work differently. USSR promised better future and mostly delivered with occasional purges during Stalin era, while Putinism promises stagnation at best. First was ultrareformist, while second is ultraconservative, even regressional. First collapsed from stagnation of 80-ies, second is still going.
and that claims of communism contradict the reality of the Stalin era
Indeed, Stalin era is opposite of being soviet(parlamentary) and socialist.
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.
Criminal record: putin’s scoreboard of excellency https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/3174724/russias-putin-decorates-army-unit-accused-ukraine-war-crimes
How many putinpoints do they get for using a 3 to 13million$ Kh-101 cruise missile to bomb a children’s hospital chemo ward?
What about personality? You know the thing that actually matters in a person…
I’d say bombing children’s hospitals says a lot about someone’s personality.
Ok. That’s not the majority of the population.
Putinism as it is. Oligarchy and survailance.
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.
