In the middle of the twentieth century, people feared that computers and new means of communications would create the kind of central governmental control dramatized in George Orwell’s 1984. And, indeed, authoritarian governments in China, Saudi Arabia, and elsewhere have used the new technologies to try to control information.
20世纪中叶，人们担心电脑和新沟通途径会造成如乔治·奥威尔在《1984》中所描述的那种中央政府控制。事实上，中国、沙特和其他地方的专制政府便用新技术来控制信息。对网络空想家来说，讽刺之处在于Twitter和Facebook等社交网络所形成的电子痕迹有时会让秘密警察的工作更加方便。