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Orwell was afraid of censorship by the government. In his wildest dreams he couldn’t envision that we’ll voluntarily out-source censorship to the private corpor

by vl 6y ago

Orwell was afraid of censorship by the government. In his wildest dreams he couldn’t envision that we’ll voluntarily out-source censorship to the private corporation. Reality stranger than fiction.

dragonwriter 6y ago
> Orwell was afraid of censorship by the government. In his wildest dreams he couldn’t envision that we’ll voluntarily out-source censorship to the private corporation. Private publishers pushing an agenda in what they choose to relay via their resources wasn't a new concept in Orwell’s time or one be was unfamiliar with, nor was audience pressure on publishers as to how they would exercise that power. It would have surprised Orwell not at all. Which can be easily seen, because he wrote an essay in which he addressed private censorship as a then-current issue, noting, in part: Unpopular ideas can be silenced, and inconvenient facts kept dark, without the need for any official ban. Anyone who has lived long in a foreign country will know of instances of sensational items of news—things which on their own merits would get the big headlines—being kept right out of the British press, not because the Government intervened but because of a general tacit agreement that ‘it wouldn’t do’ to mention that particular fact. So far as the daily newspapers go, this is easy to understand. The British press is extremely centralised, and most of it is owned by wealthy men who have every motive to be dishonest on certain important topics. But the same kind of veiled censorship also operates in books and periodicals, as well as in plays, films and radio. At any given moment there is an orthodoxy, a body of ideas which it is assumed that all right-thinking people will accept without question. It is not exactly forbidden to say this, that or the other, but it is ‘not done’ to say it, just as in mid-Victorian times it was ‘not done’ to mention trousers in the presence of a lady. Anyone who challenges the prevailing orthodoxy finds himself silenced with surprising effectiveness. A genuinely unfashionable opinion is almost never given a fair hearing, either in the popular press or in the highbrow periodicals. https://www.orwellfoundation.com/the-orwell-foundation/orwell/essays-and-other-works/the-freedom-of-the-press/ https://www.orwellfoundation.com/the-orwell-foundation/orwel...

by vl 6y ago

dragonwriter 6y ago

> Orwell was afraid of censorship by the government. In his wildest dreams he couldn’t envision that we’ll voluntarily out-source censorship to the private corporation. Private publishers pushing an agenda in what they choose to relay via their resources wasn't a new concept in Orwell’s time or one be was unfamiliar with, nor was audience pressure on publishers as to how they would exercise that power. It would have surprised Orwell not at all. Which can be easily seen, because he wrote an essay in which he addressed private censorship as a then-current issue, noting, in part: Unpopular ideas can be silenced, and inconvenient facts kept dark, without the need for any official ban. Anyone who has lived long in a foreign country will know of instances of sensational items of news—things which on their own merits would get the big headlines—being kept right out of the British press, not because the Government intervened but because of a general tacit agreement that ‘it wouldn’t do’ to mention that particular fact. So far as the daily newspapers go, this is easy to understand. The British press is extremely centralised, and most of it is owned by wealthy men who have every motive to be dishonest on certain important topics. But the same kind of veiled censorship also operates in books and periodicals, as well as in plays, films and radio. At any given moment there is an orthodoxy, a body of ideas which it is assumed that all right-thinking people will accept without question. It is not exactly forbidden to say this, that or the other, but it is ‘not done’ to say it, just as in mid-Victorian times it was ‘not done’ to mention trousers in the presence of a lady. Anyone who challenges the prevailing orthodoxy finds himself silenced with surprising effectiveness. A genuinely unfashionable opinion is almost never given a fair hearing, either in the popular press or in the highbrow periodicals. https://www.orwellfoundation.com/the-orwell-foundation/orwell/essays-and-other-works/the-freedom-of-the-press/ https://www.orwellfoundation.com/the-orwell-foundation/orwel...