The Smart Big Brother

Abstract

This case study investigates the evolution of China’s digital surveillance state, exploring how technologies initially developed for personal convenience (like smartphones and AI systems) have been transformed into instruments of authoritarian control. It traces the roots of mass surveillance to China’s “Great Firewall” and the Golden Shield Project, which regulate domestic internet content and monitor citizen behavior. The case focuses on China’s use of AI and networked infrastructures, such as facial recognition and mobile data aggregation, to create a comprehensive “digital panopticon.” The system culminates in the Social Credit System and the repression of Uyghur populations, where algorithmic profiling, biometric data collection, and predictive policing technologies enable preemptive detentions without accountability or transparency. The discussion situates these practices within global debates about privacy, liberty, and the ethical use of artificial intelligence. While framed through the legacy of Orwell’s 1984, the case shows how dystopian futures have materialized through the interplay of corporate technology and state power, and urges liberal democracies to reflect critically on surveillance, justice, and the limits of innovation.