IMPLEMENTED WITH HELP FROM WESTERN COMPANIES AND ACADEMICS WHO CONSTANTLY TELL US HOW MORAL THEY ARE: China bans 23m from buying travel tickets as part of ‘social credit’ system: People accused of social offences blocked from booking flights and train journeys.

A friend on Facebook comments: “I’m a futurist and I will cut to the chase and tell you what this will become: a precision starvation system that in case of food shortfalls allows the Chinese Communist Party to determine who eats and who does not.” Well, that’s just a high-tech improvement on the standard socialist playbook. See, e.g., Maduro’s Venezuela. So yeah, probably.

Of course, a system like this also offers a splendid opportunity for opponents to sow social discord via hacking.