New Social Credit App to Reward Italian Citizens for ‘Virtuous Behavior’
Fri 9:45 am +01:00, 22 Apr 2022 1
ER Editor: We’re running 2 stories here on the same phenomenon. We really DO RECOMMEND watching the Thales 3-minute video on what this type of app does and how it’s being pushed. Thales is a transportation company, but their video doesn’t really contain this element. NOTE THAT IT CONTAINS A MANDATORY VACCINE component just blithely put in for this young student who’s of an age where she doesn’t know which way is up. It’s thoroughly sinister.
We remind readers that Italy was the first EU country where the Covid panic and ridiculous lockdowns started after China had set it all in motion.
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In Italy: First European social credit system is coming
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: 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 for 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 interest on your own wallet.
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New social credit app to reward Italian citizens for ‘virtuous behavior’
PIERRE BORALEVI for LIFESITE NEWS
Citizens using the app will be rewarded for things such as recycling, using public transport, managing energy well, and not getting fined.
Shutterstock.comBOLOGNA, Italy (LifeSiteNews) – A new app recently released in Italy presents striking similarities with China’s social credit system by rewarding some citizens for their behavior through a point system.
“Smart Citizen Wallet” was presented at a March 29 press conference on digital innovation in Bologna, where mayor Matteo Lepore, and Massimo Bugani, director of the city’s “Digital Agenda,” discussed the project.
According to local newspaper Corriere di Bologna, which described the concept as “similar to a supermarket points collection,” (ER: how innocent!) the app is already active in Rome, where it’s currently in its experimental stages. It is set to be launched in Bologna this fall.
Citizens using the app will be rewarded for things such as recycling, using public transport, managing energy well, and not getting fined.
So-called “virtuous behaviors” will allow citizens to improve their score and win points that they will be able to “spend” on various awards such as discounts and free cultural activities.
Discussing the project at the March 29 conference, Bugani explained that the app was part of a wider effort by the city of Bologna to invest in digital innovation.
“What we call a new ‘water system’ for the city is being built,” he said.
“In the coming years many services will go digital in Italy; we have an ambitious project here is built on solid foundations.”
Bugani stated that the new smart citizen wallet app will be made available to the citizens of Bologna after this summer.
“Obviously no one will be forced to participate,” he said.
“Those who want to will be able to give consent when downloading and using the app.”
He believes, however, that “many people will want to participate.”
Some journalists, writers, and bloggers in Italy, France, and Germany have pointed out that the concept behind the app bears striking similarities with China’s social credit system. This, too, rewards citizens according to a system of points.
This was not lost on many users of social media, either. Twitter user Nat described the project as “terrifying.”
Others have pointed to similarities with other digital projects such as the Digital ID Wallet by Thales, and have warned that such projects could allow government to usher in a social credit system like China’s in the West.
Privacy Network, an Italian tech company that specializes in digital privacy, issued a statement on their website that warns about the legal, ethical, and social implications of such apps.
“These practices, if poorly developed or used, can lead to serious limitations on, and violations of, citizens’ rights and freedoms, as well as discriminatory practices, which are also achieved through technological means, such as ‘social credit’ systems (or social scoring),” the statement read.
“Our concern is increased by the fact that similar systems have already been introduced in other Italian cities as well; first of all, in Rome, where the Smart Citizen Wallet is already being tested.”
Privacy Network said that it had sent a legal request for information about the methods and characteristics of any processing of personal data used by the app, the methods of using artificial intelligence or automated systems, as well as the names of the suppliers and third parties involved in the implementation of the project.
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Published to The Liberty Beacon from EuropeReloaded.com
New Social Credit App to Reward Italian Citizens for ‘Virtuous Behavior’
I bet there’s a big boost to one’s score for snitching.