NCEA 3.4 – Writing Folio – Freedom of Expression & George Orwell’s Warning – Feature Article

Freedom of expression. A human right, according to the United Nations declaration. Under this declaration, in Article 19 it states “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers“. Our ability to express our thoughts, opinions and beliefs is important to the wellbeing of society as it enables the exchange of ideas ultimately creating an understanding between groups and it is essential for us to live in a democratic society. The ability to express opinions freely without repercussions is a fundamental pillar of our lives.

However, in this age of technology, our human right to expression is being infringed upon by manufacturers, hackers, and in some places of the world, the government. This situation we are in right now is similar to that of George Orwell’s novel ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four’ where there are no laws created by the totalitarian “Party” to protect this right of the people and any ideas that challenge the status quo are vapourised “-every record of everything you had ever done was wiped out, your one-time existence was denied and then forgotten. You were abolished, annihilated: vaporized was the usual word.”

Orwell coined the term “thoughtcrime” in his dystopian novel and it is defined as “an instance of unorthodox or controversial thinking, considered as a criminal offence or as socially unacceptable”. Simply, thoughtcrime is a set of thoughts that are seen as a criminal offence because they challenge the social norm generally established by the government in power. It is a way of justifying the censorship of unorthodox concepts. This idea may seem foreign and even impossible to many of us and some may say that thoughtcrime is an impossible future as the public wouldn’t allow it, however, it has already happened.

The example of censorship we are most familiar with is the Nazi Book burnings. The Nazi party under the leadership of Adolf Hitler ran a campaign, chiefly in 1933, to find and destroy any books that opposed the Nazi ideology or were considered “un-German”. The dictating party in ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four’ was actually inspired by the repressive methods of the Soviet Union and the Nazi Party. Although Orwell hadn’t written his novel at the time of the book burnings, in the eyes of the Nazi party these books had committed thoughtcrime and needed to be burned to stop the Austrian and German people from viewing unorthodox ideas in order to interfere with public opinion “But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.”. Restricting the expression of various ideas was a way of reducing the chance of original thought, so the principles of Nazism would be accepted without opposition, much like in ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four’ with Newspeak. “Don’t you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end, we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible because there will be no words in which to express it.”

Orwell was well ahead of his time; In 1948, when ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four’ was written, televisions existed though only 14,500 sets were present in Britain, so very few families had one. Despite this, Orwell warned that our televisions or rather, “telescreens” in his novel would betray us “the telescreen with its never-sleeping ear. They could spy upon you night and day-“. He theorised that technology in the home can and will be used to spy on us from anyone that wants to and he was right; our ‘Smart TVs’ have cameras installed for “facial recognition to make programming suggestions based on who’s watching” and microphones “allow users to control them from the comfort of the couch.“. Both of these features are internet-connected meaning that in theory, anyone can hack into your television to see and hear everything that’s going in your home.

The uncertainty of whether we can trust our devices or not is becoming more common every day. It only takes a quick Google search to find millions of news articles about phones (tiny telescreens) and televisions recording their owners without permission. This is and will lead to the restriction of the free flow of opinions, as we don’t know what and when we can say things. You’ll no longer be able to complain about your boss after a hard day at work because someone might be listening and waiting for an opportunity to get you fired “Always eyes watching you and the voice enveloping you. Asleep or awake, indoors or out of doors, in the bath or bed—no escape. Nothing was your own except the few cubic centimetres in your skull.”

Don’t fear too much though, there are steps you can take to ensure that what is said and done in the privacy of your home, stays private. For iPhone, all you need to do is go into settings, privacy and then microphone. Once you have turned the microphone off, your phone will no longer be able to record you. However, you can no longer use voice activation for Siri – a very small price to pay for privacy. Unfortunately with Smart TVs, it’s not as simple. If you already have one set up, then there is a very little chance that you can change the privacy settings you would have agreed to when you first got the television. My only recommendation would be to contact the manufacturer to see if they can assist you. However, if you about to buy a Smart TV, make sure you read all of the privacy policies and take the opportunity to decline the ones that gather your data. Despite this, hackers are still able to gain access to any microphone and cameras the television may have because of the internet feature that Smart TVs provide. Ultimately, the only true way to protect ourselves from prying ears is to live without internet-connected devices.

For us to remain in a democratic society where opinions and diverse discussions are encouraged, we must first heed George Orwell’s warning about a possible dystopia. Orwell was fearful of a society where there is no freedom of speech or expression permitted and he wrote extensively about his concerns of a governing body using technology to suppress public ideas in ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four’. We cannot allow seemingly small infringements to our freedom of expression occur, so we must speak out against manufacturers use of unnecessary privacy violations. If we abet small acts like these now then we are creating a path for bigger breaches in the future, a future where if we challenge the orthodoxy our words will be manipulated against us “Until they become conscious they will never rebel, and until after they have rebelled they cannot become conscious.”