> I am genuinely curious as to why you seem to assert that "Orwellian" can only apply to governments.
Because that's literally how it's use in the book.
> Why, in your view, would it be incorrect to apply the term to the actions of these private/publicly traded companies?
See point above.
From 1984:
“Who controls the past,’ ran the Party slogan, ‘controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.’ And yet the past, though of its nature alterable, never had been altered. Whatever was true now was true from everlasting to everlasting. It was quite simple. All that was needed was an unending series of victories over your own memory. ‘Reality control’, they called it: in Newspeak, ‘doublethink’.”
Because that's literally how it's use in the book.
> Why, in your view, would it be incorrect to apply the term to the actions of these private/publicly traded companies?
See point above.
From 1984:
“Who controls the past,’ ran the Party slogan, ‘controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.’ And yet the past, though of its nature alterable, never had been altered. Whatever was true now was true from everlasting to everlasting. It was quite simple. All that was needed was an unending series of victories over your own memory. ‘Reality control’, they called it: in Newspeak, ‘doublethink’.”
The Party is a political party.