George Orwell’s novel 1984 is a dystopian reality filled with government propaganda and gross censorship. While the novel is not directly about journalism it does connect to journalistic censorship. In 1984 the government, Big Brother, controls what information is given and what is stricken from records. While today we are not at this level of censorship, we have reached a minimal level with certain social medias and AI censor programs. It suggests the question: How far is too far when it comes to fact-checking and censorship? Should there be more of a standard for what content is allowed? Who gets to determine that standard…the user or the governing body? Although censorship is not at the level of Big Brother, even though some may argue that it is getting there, we can see that there are limitations being put in place to prevent certain content from being seen on social media. On both sides of the political aisle, there have been complaints of this “fact-checking” harming their stance or hiding things they feel are necessary to share. I think 1984 is interesting food for thought on the topic of censorship and is a great starting point for so many good questions.
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