Surveillance capitalism’s power is actually the opposite of Orwell’s Big Brother

Evidence

Although privacy advocates and many other critics of surveillance capitalism are quick to appropriate Orwellian language in the search for meaning and metaphor that capture the sense of new menace, surveillance capital’s instrumentarian power is best understood as the precise antithesis of Orwell’s Big Brother. We now turn to this stark contrast, most vividly represented in the distinct conceptions of utopia that attach to each of these two species of power. — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1176

Categorization

• XREF: Directly challenges the common media conflation of surveillance capitalism with Orwellian totalitarianism — a framing often found in privacy journalism. — connects to: Calling surveillance capitalism totalitarianism obscures rather than clarifies its threat. — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1119; Surveillance capitalism is a species of power comparable in significance to totalitarianism — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1699; The American War on Terror normalized pervasive state surveillance well beyond Orwell’s imaginings — Khaled A. Beydoun, The New Crusades_ Islamophobia and the…, 261 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• The American War on Terror normalized pervasive state surveillance well beyond Orwell’s imaginings #contradicts (0.85) — Khaled A. Beydoun, The New Crusades_ Islamophobia and the…, 261
• NSA surveillance exceeds Orwell’s 1984 worst-case fictional forecast #contradicts (0.85) — Khaled A. Beydoun, The New Crusades_ Islamophobia and the…, 1337
• Surveillance capitalism is a species of power comparable in significance to totalitarianism #qualifies (0.80) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1699