Orwell's 1984 Did Not Predict COVID-19 Restrictions

Zach Rathner

Artsandculture

4th December 2020

Orwell's 1984 Did Not Predict COVID-19 Restrictions

The Claim

George Orwell's 1984 contains text that is predictive of restrictions made as a result of COVID-19.

News posted on

Ivor Cummins

The Great British Bloke

★彡 Dr. Cathy Meijer 彡★

Orwell's 1984 has become a reality

Tracy on the Prairie

Emerging story

Following COVID-19 restrictions being reinstated across major parts of the world, a meme started circulating around social media that supposedly highlighted a quote from George Orwell’s 1984 that was predictive of lockdown restrictions imposed by governments.

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Users across social media continued to spread this claim.

Misbar’s Analysis

The Misbar team has determined that the claim is false. The quote circulating online ostensibly from the book reads: “Everything other than working was forbidden: walking in the streets, having fun, singing, dancing, getting together, everything was forbidden.”

This quote could not be found in the entirety of Orwell’s 1984. Furthermore, the Misbar team found that the earliest record of the quote circulating on the internet was in August 2020, where it was quoted in French.

While there have been many comparisons to today’s restrictions to Orwell’s novel, the quote that is attributed to the novel does not appear in the book. As such, we rate the claim as false.