As we rush towards an ever more Orwellian world of surveillance and censorship, perhaps we might all take the time to reread 1984 in order to better understand the world we are rushing towards.
George Orwell’s famous novel Nineteen Eighty-Four turns 70 years old next month. Looking back on its predictions and the state of the world today, how much did it get right in its predictions of a dystopian surveillance state where every word is monitored, unacceptable speech is deleted, history is rewritten or deleted altogether and individuals can become “unpersons” for holding views disliked by those in power? It turns out Orwell’s predictions were frighteningly accurate.
In 1984, it was the state that determined what constituted acceptable speech in keeping society orderly. In 2019, it is a small cadre of private companies in Silicon Valley and their executives that wield absolute power over what we are permitted to see and say online.In 2019, there are just a few social media empires to which most of the world’s netizens belong.In 2019, social media companies deploy vast armies of human and algorithmic moderators that surveil their users 24/7, flagging those that commit thoughtcrimes and deleting their violations from existence.
In 2019, social media companies can ban anyone at any time for any reason. Those banished from social’s walled gardens can have every post they’ve ever written wiped away, every record of their existence banished into the memory hole. Those that dare to mention the name of the digitally departed or criticize their banishment can themselves face being banished and their concerns deleted, ensuring the “unperson” truly ceases to exist.
In 2019, smartphones take on this roll, acting as both our window to the digital world and the means through which myriad private companies from data brokers to social media companies themselves surveil our every action.
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