ClaimGeorge Orwell’s 1984 was banned in the US for being pro-communist and banned in the USSR for being anti-communist.ReportingAdvertisementsOn September 2 2021, a Facebook post featured an image suggesting that George Orwell’s 1984 was banned in the United States for pro-communist sentiments, but that it was also banned in the USSR for anti-communist sentiments.A screenshot from Tumblr showed a bookstore’s shelf with a placard for “Freedom to Read Week” (an annual event in Canada), denoting a particular book as having been “challenged,” “seized,” “banned,” or “burned.” 1984 was marked as “banned” in “USSR,” “China,” and “United States.”A written portion of the image stated that 1984 had been “banned in USSR for being anti-communist,” and “banned in US for being pro-communist”:At the bottom of the image, Tumblr user ours-a-g-a commented:The book is 1984, which is neither. It’s anti-authoritarian, which tells you a lot.No additional information was included in the Facebook post. The first visible comment on the Facebook post read:I’m surprised to learn that it’s banned in the US, as I own several copies and have yet to be un-personed.A reverse image search located an earliest crawled iteration on Tumblr from March 2 2021; that timing was consistent with Canada’s annual Freedom to Read…
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Was George Orwell's '1984' Banned in the United States and the USSR for Conflicting Reasons?
