Memory hole

Censorship

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A memory hole is the alteration or outright disappearance of inconvenient or embarrassing documents, photographs, transcripts, or other records, such as from a web site or other archive. The Memory Hole is a website whose goal is to preserve those documents which are in danger of being lost, and there are a number of other websites with similar goals.^[1]

Origins

The memory hole is a small chute leading to a large incinerator used for censorship in George Orwell's novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four:^[2]

In the walls of the cubicle there were three orifices. To the right of the speakwrite, a small pneumatic tube for written messages, to the left, a larger one for newspapers; and in the side wall, within easy reach of Winston's arm, a large oblong slit protected by a wire grating. This last was for the disposal of waste paper. Similar slits existed in thousands or tens of thousands throughout the building, not only in every room but at short intervals in every corridor. For some reason they were nicknamed memory holes. When one knew that any document was due for destruction, or even when one saw a scrap of waste paper lying about, it was an automatic action to lift the flap of the nearest memory hole and drop it in, whereupon it would be whirled away on a current of warm air to the enormous furnaces which were hidden somewhere in the recesses of the building.(pp. 34-35)

In the novel, the memory hole is a slot into which government officials deposit politically inconvenient documents and records to be destroyed. Nineteen Eighty-Four's protagonist Winston Smith, who works in the Ministry of Truth, is routinely assigned the task of revising old newspaper articles in order to serve the propaganda interests of the government. For example, if the government had pledged that the chocolate ration would not fall below the current 30 grams per week, but in fact the ration is reduced to 20 grams per week, the historical record (e.g., an article from a back issue of the Times newspaper) is revised to contain an announcement that a reduction to 20 grams might soon prove necessary, or that the ration, then 15 grams, would soon be increased to that number. The original copies of the historical record are deposited into the memory hole. A document placed in the memory hole is supposedly transported to an incinerator from which "not even the ash remains". However, not all things tossed in make it to the incinerator. A picture Winston throws into one, is produced later during his torture session, if only to be thrown back in an instant later.

Current usage

A memory hole is seen by some as one of the common tactical and strategic operations of governments, particularly as a method of silencing those whose historical views are out of synchronicity with governmental or more popular views. As two seminal quotations note: "Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past." -- Inner Party member O'Brien in 1984; "Every government is run by liars and nothing they say should be believed." -- I. F. Stone^[3]

In an ironic twist of fate, in 2009, Amazon.com's electronic book, the Kindle, was purged of copies of Orwell's 1984 and Animal Farm. Customers who earlier downloaded those books, found them surreptitiously erased from their Kindles, in what some said was the books' being "sent down a memory hole."^[4] The book retailer denied accusations of "Big Brother-like behavior", and stated that the books were uploaded to the Kindle store by a publisher who did not have reproduction rights, thereby necessitating the deletion. "We removed the illegal copies from our systems and from customers' devices, and refunded customers," a spokesman said.^[5] Some critics likened this to Barnes & Noble selling a book, then burglarizing a house to reclaim it whilst leaving a check. Amazon.com stated that they might not repeat the actions in the future.^[6] A Shelby Township, Michigan student is the lead plaintiff in a proposed class action lawsuit, which claims that his annotated notes for a class were rendered "useless" when his Kindle's copy of 1984 was purloined using secret technology to invade his computer via an undisclosed Trojan horse.^[7]

See also

References

1. ^ McNichol, Tom (2003-11-13). "Peeking Behind the Curtain of Secrecy". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/13/technology/circuits/13kick.html. Retrieved 06-08-2009. 
2. ^ "Memory Hole", the Newspeak Dictionary.
3. ^ Bennett, John, Orwell's 1984: Was Orwell Right? Institute for Historical Review (Paper Presented to the Sixth International Revisionist Conference.)
4. ^ Pogue, David , July 17, 2009, Some E-Books Are More Equal Than Others, Pogue's Posts - The Latest in Technology From David Pogue, New York Times.
5. ^ Amazon sends Orwell to 'memory hole' July 18th, 2009.
6. ^ Pogue, David , July 17, 2009, Some E-Books Are More Equal Than Others, Pogue's Posts - The Latest in Technology From David Pogue, New York Times.
7. ^ Amazon sued over Kindle deletion of Orwell book, Yahoo News, July 31, 2009.

• George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four, first published by Martin Secker & Warburg, London, 1949. This reference, Penguin Books pocket edition, 1954.

External links

• Kick, Russ, The Memory Hole (rescuing knowledge, freeing information) Includes documents released under the US Freedom of Information Act that reveal government activities rarely reported by the mainstream media.
• Shenk, David, Op-Ed Contributor The Memory Hole November 3, 2006 New York Times.