In [this whistleblowing post](https://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/c1mmq6/hong_kong_police_arrested_protesters_after/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app) that talks about arrests being made to hospitalized protesters in Hong Kong through a backdoor, someone in the comments [states that big brother is watching](https://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/c1mmq6/hong_kong_police_arrested_protesters_after/erebzcb/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app). Can someone explain who or what this big brother figure is like I’m five?
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It is a reference to a book named “1984” by *George Orwell*. It describes a dystopian future in which a fascist government has taken over the UK and is in total control of live in the country. One of the features of the totalitarian state is the omnipresent surveillance.
In the book it is described with the slogan “Big Brother is watching you!” Where big Brother is the name given to a potentially fictional leader of the party that controls everything.
The book gave us many words to describe attempts to create a world as the one described in the book.
People speak of Orwellian surveillance when they think it is similar to what the writer described in his book.
People also speak of “Newspeak” and “memory-holes” to describe the way that some fascist and totalitarian regimes have controlled language and history as it was known to their people.
People use the phrase “Big Brother is watching you” to reference the surveillance state described in the book where the government is watching everyone ever move.
“Big Brother” has become synonymous with some entity that engages in mass surveillance.
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