this post was submitted on 17 Feb 2026
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Explanation: For those who are unaware, during the 1950s-1980s, the USA and USSR engaged in what is generally called the Cold War wherein both sides played very 'ugly' games of realpolitik, even by the already-low moral standards of international politics, in order to make sure that as many countries were ruled by "Good Tribe" and against "Bad Tribe" as possible.
Both the USA and USSR claimed to be fighting for democracy. The USA's claim had more validity at first glance, as the USSR was a single-party state which ran mostly single-candidate elections; while the US, for all of its flaws, did run elections with genuine competition. However, in terms of affecting foreign affair policy, this had only a small effect at best. The USA was largely happy to support brutal, genocidal dictators who scoffed at the notion of elections, just as the USSR was.
On that point, wasn't 1984 the book initially forbidden on both countries?
Not to my knowledge. The (largely real) artistic freedom offered by the USA was actually a major propaganda tool the US government used.
By the way, this false notion of freedom, it feels like it had been planted since at least the cold war. As more and more problems come to light, as a journalist from my country, Alexandre Pittoli, would say, "we thought we had (freedom), until we needed it". But as another countryman, analyst Diogo Forjaz, would say, those that would benefit from those issues miscalculated the power of the internet.
I feel like the internet is rapidly on the way to lose its freedom-promoting advantages. Just another avenue for authoritarian propaganda and control. And even before that, it's not like the internet's lawless state in the early 2000s and 2010s were the hayday of left-of-center governance in most western countries.
Yes
In the US, it gets removed from libraries, but that's not quite the same as banning it. No one is going to kick down your door, search your house, confiscate the book and possibly throw you in prison (or worse) for owning it. Might change soon, though.