State surveillance can self-censor personal correspondence among citizens

Evidence

In a mix of teenage fright and political fear, she was convinced that the government censors, who read all the mail leaving the country, would pore over her correspondence and inform on her, revealing to her family not only that she was writing to Daniel but just what she said. — Moustafa Bayoumi, How Does It Feel to Be a Problem? Being…, 586

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the broader theme of how authoritarian surveillance shapes private life, echoing reading on censorship and self-discipline of communication. — connects to: Surveillance harms by invading the self’s space on another’s behalf. — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 471; State-mandated privacy standards coexist with mass state data access. — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 557; Facebook-era surveillance makes people voluntarily survey themselves unlike Foucault’s uncertain panopticon — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk: The Collected and Unpublished…, 2256