Criminalization of Ideas: Historical and Digital-Era Book Banning as Sociopolitical Control

Abstract

This article examines book banning as a mechanism for criminalizing dissent and enforcing sociopolitical
control, highlighting its historical and contemporary manifestations. Building on Darnton’s account of how
authorities police print culture to shape political order, the analysis shows how censorship operates through
legal and institutional frameworks to regulate public discourse, suppress opposition, and reinforce power.
By integrating social control theory, labeling theory, and conflict theory, the article compares state-sponsored
censorship in the Soviet Union, apartheid South Africa, and Nazi Germany with digitally mediated information
control in China and contemporary book restriction controversies in the United States. Resistance
movements—from samizdat networks to digital advocacy—underscore the enduring struggle for