Yet, here we are, ten years and a new generation later, and negative public perception is changing. Won't be long now. Accept the mark, er, the chip, or you WON'T be able to work, buy food, etc.
If it’s something that you can carry and put down or pick up as you please, then it wouldn’t be such a thing.
Maybe this is symbolic. Maybe the hand represents actions, and the forehead represents thoughts. If you will not behave and think like the beast wants, you become anathema to that society. We’ve already seen far-lefty liberalism get virulent like that in areas where it prevails. (Extreme-righty reactionarianism could do it too in principle, but that is not a modern problem.)
We zipped right past implanted chip technology. Now it’s app based. Always the problem with trying to apply prophecies to the real world, the real world keeps on changing.