"Orwell called them thought police. Big Tech calls them fact checkers” is a saying that has been printed on many images. “Thought police” were mentioned in George Orwell’s dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949). The saying means that “fact checkers” at social media (such as Facebook and Twitter) have become the new thought police.

“Orwell called them Thought Police. Zuckerberg (Mark Zuckerberg, owner of Facebook—ed.) calls them Fact Checkers” was posted on Twitter by Twitter by NW Rambler on September 7, 2020. “#ORWELL CALLED THEM ‘THOUGHT POLICE’. BIG TECH CALLS THEM ‘FACT CHECKERS’” was posted on Twitter by 𝓙aap 𝓓octer (Mol) on October 25, 2020. The saying probably originated on an image.


Wikipedia: Thought Police
In the dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), by George Orwell, the Thought Police (Thinkpol) are the secret police of the superstate Oceania, who discover and punish thoughtcrime, personal and political thoughts unapproved by the government. The Thinkpol use criminal psychology and omnipresent surveillance via informers, telescreens, cameras, and microphones, to monitor the citizens of Oceania and arrest all those who have committed thoughtcrime in challenge to the status quo authority of the Party and the regime of Big Brother. Orwell’s concept of “policing thought” derived from the intellectual self-honesty shown by a person’s “power of facing unpleasant facts”; thus, criticising the dominant ideology of British society often placed Orwell in conflict with ideologues, people advocating “smelly little orthodoxies”.

Twitter
NW Rambler
@iamgregk
Orwell called them Thought Police.
Zuckerberg calls them Fact Checkers.
3:58 PM · Sep 7, 2020·Twitter for Android

Twitter
Geoff Brown
@GeoffBr75267219
George Orwell called them “Thought Police”. Facebook calls them “Fact Checkers”.
12:13 PM · Sep 15, 2020·Twitter for Android

Facebook
CoverArt.com
September 20, 2020 ·
Lessons for Democrats: #26
George Orwell called them the THOUGHT POLICE in 1984.  Facebooks Zuckerberg calls them “Fact Checkers”

Twitter
Jacqueline Anne
@She_Shoots
George Orwell called them “thought police”. Zuckerberg calls them “fact checkers”. #redpilled #Trump2020 #NavigatingDystopia #NavDys
10:31 PM · Sep 21, 2020·Twitter for iPhone

Twitter
Pocketspeed
@Pocketspeed
Orwell called them “Thought Police”.
Today, we call them “Independent Fact Checkers”.
3:13 PM · Oct 7, 2020·Twitter Web App

Twitter
Cindy Santa Anna
@v2saturn
Orwell called them thought police, facebook and twitter call them fact checkers
4:35 PM · Oct 23, 2020·Twitter Web App

Twitter
𝓙aap 𝓓octer (Mol)
@dokkie27
#ORWELL CALLED THEM ‘THOUGHT POLICE’
BIG TECH CALLS THEM ‘FACT CHECKERS’
3:25 PM · Oct 25, 2020·Twitter for Android