Improper online remarks could lead to blacklisting
The provincial economic planning commission of East China's Shandong Province Wednesday said they will establish a social credit system to assess local Net users' behavior and blacklist people.
The five-year plan, drafted and announced by the Shandong Development and Reform Commission, noted that authorities will launch a system to assess Net users' behavior and to record their social credit ranking.
Net users and e-commerce operators will have their own social credit accounts in the system.
Individuals and organizations who are involved in spreading rumors, Internet fraud or causing damage to other users' rights will be blacklisted and authorities will put restrictions in their online activities, according to the draft plan. The blacklist will be publicized, the plan added.
The plan, which is soliciting public opinion until June 2, also said that the authorities would keep promoting real-name registration for Internet users in order to beef up supervision of the Internet.
The plan was drafted under the guidance of the central government's outline for building a government-led national social credit system.
The State Council stated in June 2014 that the country planned to establish a credit reference system to cover the whole of society, including an assessment of online behavior by 2020.
According to the document, individuals and organizations will be coded based on identity card numbers or organization numbers to allow different sectors to share social credit information.
Wei Wuhui, an Internet expert with Shanghai Jiao Tong University, told the Global Times that the assessment might target online remarks to crack down on rumors rather than e-commerce.
"The credit system for online commercial behaviors has already been relatively mature. The government has paid close attention to online voices, as some of them spread rumors and could threaten social stability," Wei said. A dozen provincial governments have issued similar five-year plans on social credit systems like Shandong's, such as Fujian and Anhui provinces. Under Fujian's plan, announced March 2015, individuals such as civil servants, media staff, lawyers and security company's employees will be the main targets.
