New Social Credit App to Reward Italian Citizens for ‘Virtuous Behavior’

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by Thomas Oysmuller

The time has come: From autumn there will be the first social credit system on European soil. In Italy, in Bologna, there is a “pilot project”. Virtuous behavior will earn points that can be exchanged for rewards.

The social credit system is getting serious. Originally an innovation from China, the EU has now adopted the societal control system of “social credit”. The first model will come to Europe in autumn. The “Smart Citizen Wallet”.

Social credit system comes to Europe

First of all, the app is voluntary and it works much like a textbook social credit system. Virtuous citizens who separate waste, use public transport and don’t collect administrative fines will collect “points”. Which rewards can then be exchanged for the points is “currently being defined,” said Massimo Bugano, who works on the project for the newspaper “Corriere di Bologna”. The city administration of Bologna still has a little time, the project should start after the summer.

The citizen can thus be sorted for the first time in Europe. He is divided into the good, virtuous citizen and the bad, blamed citizen. The questions that follow are obvious: “Are those who do not conform to the criteria of the dominant ideology, or what is considered virtuous by some politicians, to be first punished by deprivation of benefits before being marginalized? ? What becomes of those who refuse to comply, who persist in exercising their inalienable right to free will? ‘ asks French journalist Yannick Chatelain.

The advocates calm down. “Of course” participation in the project is voluntary. However, one is convinced that many citizens will participate, after all, there are many advantages to be won.

Chatelain: “You don’t have to be a great visionary to envision what’s going to happen: In my opinion, first there will be those who will go along with it. Participation is presented by its initiators – in an extremely reductive way (cf. economic crisis, purchasing power, uncertain future) – as a first proof of the citizens’ will of some. As for the refusers, they may be singled out.”

Digital Identity

How voluntary will the system still be in a few years? Interaction with the authority could require a “Smart Citizen Wallet” in the future. Not in the fall, but the development is undeniable. Also in Austria: the “ID Austria” replaces the “Bürgerkarte” and the “Handysignatur” and is a decisive step towards the Austrian “smart citizen”.

And in the background, the big project is running on a large scale: the “European Digital Identity Wallet” – a project of the EU Commission and Ursula von der Leyen. Behind all the projects there is still no open social credit system as is the case in Bologna, but it is a clear step in the right direction. A small “feature” more on the app and the sorting of citizens by authority can begin. At the same time, a hidden obligation to use smartphones is developing: First, the driver’s license can be digitized, but the analog ID will still be accepted. But at some point not anymore. Then that means a smartphone ID or no driver’s license.

The EU Commission acted extremely ambitiously in the shadow of the so-called “corona pandemic”. According to the “Thales Group”, which is working on the development of the “European ID wallet”, the Commission wants every EU citizen to be able to be offered such an app by autumn 2023.

Here is a promotional video from autumn 2020. You should listen very carefully.

The EU also says, as in Bologna: the app is a voluntary offer – for those who want to use it. Recall the “Corona aid packages” for individual companies: These could only be applied with the “mobile phone signature”. What will be the first benefit of the state that can only be obtained with the digital identity app?

What is also “practical” about the project in Bologna, like the Commission, is that the “app” is called “wallet”. So it’s also a digital wallet. The money can be found in the wallet. Digital central bank money – some say the wet dream of European technocracy – can then be stowed away in the “smart citizen wallet”. And if you’re good, you get interested in your own wallet.

Source: Tkp.at