[mintplant]

I mean, it's a joke. But to your point, I could imagine a product becoming popular, then ubiquitous, then effectively mandatory and exploited for control. There's Sesame Credit in China which is applying this to social networking (look it up, it's a terrifying idea). State involvement isn't necessary: see Facebook ("Why don't you have a Facebook?" in any social situation, or the reported trend of employers asking to see prospective hires' accounts), or smartphones (loaded with surveillance libraries from adtech companies).

* Also, they weren't "videoscreens" in 1984 but "telescreens", producing audio while recording and transmitting audio and video. That happens to match the Echo Look, form factor excepted.