Censorship In The 21st Century

That Snapchat you just sent could have been seen by the government. In our society, we are constantly being monitored and censored to eliminate ideas the government doesn’t want to be available to the public. In George Orwell’s 1984 there are multiple instances of supervision and censorship that are also found in today’s society. The idea of monitoring ideas and changing them through restriction is similar to censorship in the 21st Century is similar to 1984 because of the ideas of suppression of the media, art/music, and film.
One way we are censored in modern times is through art and music. If art/music has nudity, explicit language, or something controversial in it, it might be censored by the government. A topical example of this is the “free the nipple” campaign. Many women are protesting their right to be topless in art, at the beach, when it’s hot outside a, just like men have the opportunity to be topless without judgment. In an article about art censorship today it says, “But the greater offense is that, since that time, censorship of art in popular culture has not declined; it has intensified and expanded.” (Dority 36). Many people think that the acceptance of “explicit” material in art has become more
bearable in society, but they argue that it hasn’t become more accepting. In 1984, Julia works in the Fiction department where she creates entertainment for people to verify that all the citizens read and look at aren’t going against the party. In the 21st century art, music in literature is being censored in a similar way in 1984. In modern times, not everyone can just write a book and put it out in the world. It takes a great deal of work to make books available to the public, but instead of letting people just write books in the society 1984 you must be hired by the government to do it. Julia’s job is to corroborate that all of the entertainment that goes out in censored based on the party’s ideals. In 1984 it says, “She could describe the whole process of composing a novel, from the general directive issued by the Planning Committee down to the final touching-up by the Rewrite Squad. But she was not interested in the finished product.” (Orwell 164). She makes entertainment so regular people can’t create entertainment for people to see. The ultimate goal is to use the entertainment that the party writes and not entertainment that could potentially defy the party. The party constructs leisure materials, so they don’t have to later censor rebellious material.
Lastly, when people search on Google they are being monitored and censored. In an article about Google and Facebook, it says, ”Importantly, this US government agency—along with others around the world, particularly the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) in the UK—intentionally design their surveillance programs to exploit the ‘backdoors’ of private communication platforms like Google and Facebook.” (Hogan et al 8). Searches and search results are constantly monitored and later censored. Not everything on Google or Facebook is allowed to stay there or stay uncensored without being monitored. In 1984, the telescreens would also monitor a person to be watched if they do anything to resist the party. They also censor all of the ideas that are expressed which offset the party. 1984 says, “Any sound that Winston made, above the level of a very low whisper, would be picked up by it, moreover, so long as he remained within the field of vision which the metal plaque commanded, he could be seen as well as heard. There was, of course, no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment.” (Orwell 4). In 1984, people are being watched through the telescreens, to see if they are going against the party. The sole reason that citizens are watched is to determine if they are discussing ideas that the government needs to erase these ideas, to retain their power. The government censors the ideas that antagonize the party, and they can do this by constantly monitoring the ideas of residents.
Censorship and monitoring is an idea that is seen in the 21st century and in 1984 through the media, art/music, and film.
In media, the internet can tell what a country is thinking and is an important example of censorship in today’s society. On the internet, Google and Facebook are monitoring what people see so that the search results are later censored based on a person’s search history. Not only the internet is being censored, but art, literature, and music are being censored to eliminate explicit ideas. As our society gets even more obsessed with technology, the idea of censorship is getting easier to achieve. Not only could your Snapchat be seen by the government, as we become more technologically advanced it could be changed and censored by
them.