China Proposes Everyone Should Have a Permanent, Unique ID in the Metaverse

pcmag.com:

China thinks its real-world social credit system, where every person has a unique ID that's easy to track and shared with law enforcement, would work well for all online worlds and metaverses.

A proposal of a "Digital identity System" for anyone using an virtual online world or metaverse has been drafted by state-owned telecommunications company China Mobile and reviewed by Politico.

The proposal suggest creating a unique digital ID for every person that includes a range of "identifiable signs, natural characteristics, social characteristic," and personal details. The ID would be stored permanently and shared with law enforcement to allow for swift action to be taken when bad behavior occurs within these virtual worlds.

China Mobile includes an example in the proposal of how a user named Tom could be promptly identified and punished after he "spreads rumors and makes chaos in the metaverse."

If this sounds familiar, it's because China already has such a system in place in the real world called the Social Credit System. Under that system, every individual, business, and government institution has a record created that can be tracked and evaluated for trustworthiness. There are currently many different forms of this system being used within China, but eventually a unified version operating on a national scale is expected to roll out.

China Mobile's proposal is under discussion at the United Nations' telecoms agency, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), which created a metaverse focus group in December last year. Within the group, regulators, academics, non-governmental organizations, and tech companies review ideas and vote on them. China Mobile submitted this idea on July 5 at the second metaverse focus group