Because it's a volunteer, private process and not the government doing it, we still call it "freedom" but it really doesn't feel like an open society anymore. But I do acknowledge that we still have it way better in the West than they do in China (for now).
Russians and Chinese citizens in my company, along with us citizens, europeans. These aren't exactly outliers. The tech world has been this tolerant over my 30 years of working. It's only gotten more tolerant over time. There's a hell of a lot less acceptance of sexist crap though - hard to argue against that change.
As for arbitrary detention, how about the National Defense Authorization Act (2012) Section 1021 [2]? The language is a mixture of strong and weak. What I mean is that it says, for instance, one can be detained for providing direct support of a specific terrorist group, but it also includes anybody engaging in a "belligerent act" against the United States as similarly sufficient grounds for arbitrary detention or transferal to the custody or control of any other nations. This remains one of the loopholes for 'we don't torture' - we just transfer to countries that do. When Obama signed this bill into law he openly acknowledged this, as well as the rather extreme constitutional conflicts, and simply claimed his administration would "interpret" the law in a way that would avoid a constitutional conflict. [3] Whether that was true or not is anybody's guess. In any case 'the law's still here, he's all gone' (in my best Springsteen impersonation.)
[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Room_641A
[2] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Defense_Authorization...
[3] - https://www.ajc.com/blog/jamie-dupree/obama-defense-bill-sig...
One AG trying != it happened.
> and social scores are just as possible to implement in the US as in China
Not under the current laws, no.
> we already know that a form of such scoring has already been applied to those thought to perhaps be "terrorists".
No, there is no “terrorist” score that comes up based on posting tweets about how much you hate the US government when you go to apply for a job. In fact, it would probably be worse for your job prospects in the tech industry if you had public posts supporting the current admin.
As to the terrorist score, you are right. That would be too simple to target.
Instead, we have amalgam of various private entities collecting information and selling it to highest bidder. At best, the score is distributed.
Indeed. The closest you get is the No Fly List.
Just because the US et al aren't perfect (and they certainly aren't) doesn't mean the behavior in China is equivalent to what is going on in the west.