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16,283 views | May 6, 2019, 02:58pm

As Orwell's 1984 Turns 70 It

Predicted Much Of Today's
Surveillance Society
Kalev Leetaru Contributor
AI & Big Data
I write about the broad intersection of data and society.

George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) GETTY

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 1984, there were just a few countries to which most of the world’s
citizens belonged.

In 2019, there are just a few social media empires to which most of the
world’s netizens belong.

In 1984, it was the state that conducted surveillance and censored

speech.

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. Those that commit too many thoughtcrimes are banished
to “unperson” status by these same private companies, without any
intervention or even in contradiction with the will of the state and
without any right to appeal.

In 1984, those who committed particularly egregious thoughtcrimes

or had histories of them were banished into nonexistence, all traces of
them deleted.

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.

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In 1984, the government constantly rewrites and deletes history that

has become inconvenient.

In 2019, governments quietly rewrite press releases to remove past

statements that proved wrong or to add statements to support their
present assertions. Meanwhile the European Union’s “Right to be
Forgotten” grants ordinary citizens the ability to wipe clean society’s
memories of their past, allowing them to be “reborn” without the
burden of their past transgressions.

In 1984, ever-present “telescreens” act as both information conveyor

and surveillance device and saturate both public and private spaces
with cameras and microphones monitored by the government.

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. Yet, our world goes far beyond the one
imagined by Orwell in which every device from our watches to our
refrigerators, our thermostats to our toasters, are increasingly
Internet-connected and streaming a realtime documentary of our
lives back to these private surveillance empires.

In 1984, it was the state that made use of its vast surveillance empire
to maintain order.

In 2019, a landscape of private companies so large it is almost

uncountable, monitors, monetizes and manipulates us.

In 1984, the government uses its surveillance state to nudge each

member of its citizenry towards a desired state.

In 2019, private companies do the same, building up vast behavioral

and interest profiles on each individual user that they then use to
nudge them towards the most monetizable behaviors.

In 1984, the government funded the vast empire of equipment and

personnel needed to maintain constant surveillance of its citizens.

In 2019, the public themselves fund the great surveillance empire that
monitors, monetizes and manipulates them. Citizens purchase the
latest digital devices, upgrade and maintain them at regular intervals,
pay for the power and internet services needed to connect them and
grant unlimited rights to their most intimate information to private
companies.

In 1984, the ultimate goal of the massive surveillance empire is to

sustain and entrench the power of the state.

In 2019, the ultimate goal of the online world’s massive surveillance

empire is to sustain and entrench the power of social media
companies.

Indeed, the similarities are nearly as endless as the words of the book.

Putting this all together, 70 years after 1984’s publication, it seems

nearly every aspect of Orwell’s commentary on the surveillance state
has come true. The only difference is that Orwell saw surveillance and
control as the domain of the state, whereas in reality the surveillance
world we have come to know is one of private companies monitoring,
monetizing and manipulating society for nothing more than
commercial gain.

In the end, 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.

Kalev Leetaru Contributor

Based in Washington, DC, I founded my first internet startup the year after the
Mosaic web browser debuted, while still in eighth grade, and have spent the
last 20 years... Read More

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