Abstract

In an era where digital technologies permeate every aspect of daily life the boundaries between private thought and public expression are increasingly blurred. Democracies long considered bastions of free speech now grapple with the complex relationship between digital surveillance and the psychological phenomenon of self-censorship. While surveillance has traditionally been associated with authoritarian regimes its evolution in democratic contexts—through metadata collection predictive policing social media monitoring and algorithmic profiling—has created a subtle but pervasive chilling effect on public discourse. This paper investigates how digital surveillance fosters a culture of self-censorship particularly among journalists activists students and ordinary citizens in democratic societies. Drawing from interdisciplinary perspectives in political science psychology and digital sociology as well as qualitative interviews and case studies from India the United States and the European