Themost downloaded app in Apple Store ’s China neighborhood , with over 100 million users , awards points for take articles , fill quizzes , learning about socialist theory and watching videos about President Xi Jinping and the Communist Party . The app , Study the Great Nation , was developed by the public sentiment inquiry sectionalization of China ’s Central Propaganda Department and tech society Alibaba , and it ’s beinglikened to Chairman Mao ’s Little Red Book .
The app is n’t just compare to that far-famed work of propaganda — one see by many as a tool for survival during China ’s Cultural Revolution in the LX and 70s — because of its wide distribution in the nation , but in the press that the Party is set on its masses to engage with its content .
“ We must love our country , ” 35 - twelvemonth - sure-enough army veteran Jiang Shuiqiutold the New York Times . He is reportedly a top scorekeeper in Changsha . “ We are getting warm and stronger . ”
Photo: Getty
concord to reports , schools , businesses , and administration offices are all using the app ’s point system as a way to , at best , incentivize people and , at worse , punish them . But the examples illustrated in reports indicate how the app is used as a prick for ideologic intimidation — employees at companies are ranked by their utilization of the app and some employers reportedly force their staff to send them screenshots of their scores , every day .
“ We were assure we had to seduce at least 30 points a day , ” a government employee in southern Chinatold the South China Morning Post . “ I can make that account just by leaving the telephone open with the articles and videos turned on , though I have to adjust the setting to avert a timeout . ”
Two polite servants in Beijing also reported that they get footling oversight from their superiors when it came to supervise their exercise on the app , but the New York Times report that there are some government activity offices that host study sessions and make prole who are n’t keep acceptable scores write vital written report on themselves .
And the proliferation of the app is n’t simply a result of authoritarian superiors — people who wring up enough points can also reportedly expend them to redeem discount at some businesses or comped admission price into some tourist spots .
It ’s also undecipherable how a failure to adopt the Study the Great Nation app into a regular subprogram might affect an individual drug user who is n’t apply accountable by their employer or motivated by a discount . accord to the New York Times , China ’s Propaganda Department maintains user data . This reportedly include their name , photo , videos , and contact .
Users can also text , call , and video chat with people within the app — it work with Alibaba ’s messaging app DingTalk — mean the nation ’s company has access to some potentially inner and let on data .
“ you may not divert tending away from it , ” Haiqing Yu , a prof who studies Chinese medium at RMIT University in Australia , enjoin the New York Times . “ It ’s a kind of digital surveillance . It bring in the digital dictatorship to a new level . ”
[ New York Times ]
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