
'Smartphone zombie' fine cheered on Chinese social media - scaryclam
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-trending-46902965
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bxio
Netherlands: Let's add lightning strips at the end of crossroads to appear in
people's peripheral vision.

China: Just fine them.

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unpwn
Anyone know the details of the law? "activities affecting other vehicles or
pedestrians" seems pretty vague...

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coldtea
People looking at their smartphones while driving?

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trhway
using camera on the phone augmented by GPS it is possible to recognize that
the user started to cross the road and notify the user (West democracy
version) or just turn the screen off for the period of the crossing
(authoritarian country version).

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toomuchtodo
Hacking around a lack of personal responsibility is inefficient. Fines are
better, and will incentivize these people to pay attention like responsible
adults in potentially hazardous areas of public spaces.

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yasp
Garbage journalism to cite anonymous internet commenters and then also fail to
mention that China's Communist Party liberally uses internet shills to
manipulate public opinion.

>A 2016 Harvard University paper found that in contrast to common assumptions,
Chinese Internet commentators are mostly paid government bureaucrats,
responding to government directives in times of crisis, and flood Chinese
social media with pro-government comments. They also rarely engage in direct
arguments, and around 80% of the analysed posts involve pro-China cheerleading
with inspirational slogans, and 13% involve general praise and suggestions on
governmental policies. [1]

[1]
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/50_Cent_Party](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/50_Cent_Party)

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tivert
They also use social media censorship strategically to accomplish their own
aims. I recall a story of some lower government official (something to do with
trains, I think) who screwed something up. The higher ups unusually chose
_not_ to censor the social media criticism of him, _then used the criticism to
justify his removal_.

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renholder
Whilst a fine might be a good idea for crossing the road, it'll eventually be
eroded away over time as the practice of _always_ looking at your phone
saturates more and more into society.

Discovering this compulsory need might lead to reducing the actual actions but
let's face it: Other things you could recieve a fine for, jail time for, etc.
are now in the mainstream. Gay marriage and marijuana are two principal
examples (not that I'm against either).

It's only a matter of time, really.

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ddeokbokki
Your comparison doesn't work at all.

There is nothing inherently wrong with wanting to marry someone you love or
consuming marijuana whereas crossing the street while essentially being tunnel
visioned on a 6" screen is potentially very dangerous for yourself and, more
importantly, others.

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stefan_
Ah yes, the very dangerous pedestrians! That's depression era revisionism to
make people feel less bad for not paying attention, hitting and killing people
_merely walking_ with their cars.

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bpicolo
It's absolutely dangerous to others to walk into the road without paying
attention because it can force oncoming vehicles to behave erratically (fast
breaking, swerving, etc).

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bryanlarsen
If a pedestrian steps out onto a crosswalk and you cannot stop without
behaving erratically, you were going too fast for road conditions or you
weren't paying attention and you're at fault.

If your quick stop causes problems for any vehicles behind you, they were
going too fast or weren't paying attention and they're at fault.

edit: jrockway said it better:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18932676](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18932676)

