Social media users compared the hate hoax against the Covington Catholic high school kids to a passage about “facecrime” from George Orwell’s landmark novel 1984 this week.

The Covington Catholic incident, where a pro-Trump student faced media wrath for smirking at a Native American man who was harassing him, was compared by social media users to a passage about “facecrime” from George Orwell’s dystopian book 1984, which reads: “to wear an improper expression on your face (to look incredulous when a victory was announced, for example) was itself a punishable offence. There was even a word for it in Newspeak: FACECRIME, it was called.”

"..to wear an improper expression on your face (to look incredulous when a victory was announced, for example) was itself a punishable offense. There was even a word for it in Newspeak: Facecrime, it was called." #GeorgeOrwell 1984 https://t.co/06PRfVFABc — John Kass (@John_Kass) January 23, 2019

"To wear an improper expression on your face… was itself a punishable offense. There was even a word for it in Newspeak: FACECRIME, it was called" — George Orwell, 1984 #VerifiedBullies #CovingtonBoys #StandWithCovington — Ali Alexander (@ali) January 22, 2019

In Orwell’s totalitarian dystopia 1984, the authorities punish people for their facial expressions: “facecrime.” pic.twitter.com/cFvUNnk7sM — John Durant (@johndurant) January 22, 2019

Nick Sandmann, media-lynched for a “smirk.” From Orwell’s 1984: “to wear an improper expression on your face (to look incredulous when a victory was announced, for example) was itself a punishable offence. There was even a word for it in Newspeak: facecrime, it was called.” — Thomas D. Williams (@tdwilliamsrome) January 23, 2019

"To wear an improper expression on your face (to look incredulous when a victory was announced, for example) was itself a punishable offense. There was even a word for it in Newspeak: facecrime, it was called." —George Orwell, 1984 — Alana Mastrangelo (@ARmastrangelo) January 23, 2019

One Ivy League professor accused the student of having “the smiling face of Whiteness,” while television host Reza Aslan asked his Twitter followers, “Have you ever seen a more punchable face than this kid’s?”

NBC News’ Savannah Guthrie also remarked, “There is something aggressive about standing there, standing your ground.”