Editing Memory hole (section)

{{short description|Mechanism to erase public records}}
{{Other uses}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2021}}
A '''memory hole''' is any mechanism for the deliberate alteration or disappearance of inconvenient or embarrassing documents, photographs, transcripts or other records, such as from a [[website]] or other archive, particularly as part of an attempt to give the impression that something never happened.<ref name="mother">[http://motherjones.com/mojo/2010/06/nevada-tea-partier-memory-hole-website-sharron-angle-harry-reid-senate Weinstein, Adam, ''Nevada Tea Partier's Memory Hole'', 9 June 2010] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100613222435/http://motherjones.com/mojo/2010/06/nevada-tea-partier-memory-hole-website-sharron-angle-harry-reid-senate |date=13 June 2010 }}. [[Mother Jones (magazine)|Mother Jones]].</ref> The concept was first popularized by [[George Orwell]]'s 1949 [[utopian and dystopian fiction|dystopian novel]] ''[[Nineteen Eighty-Four]]'', where [[the Party (Nineteen Eighty-Four)|the Party]]'s [[Ministry of Truth]] systematically re-created all potentially embarrassing historical documents, in effect, re-writing all of history to match the often-changing state propaganda. These changes were complete and undetectable.