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North Korea Officially Blocks Facebook, Twitter and YouTube (mashable.com)

Posted by msmash on from the closed-silos dept.

An anonymous reader links to an Associated Press report: North Korea has officially announced it is blocking Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and South Korean websites in a move underscoring its concern with the spread of online information. The Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications announcement was posted this week at the country's main mobile service provider, Koryolink, and other places serving Internet users. Very few North Koreans have Internet access. Typically they can see only a sealed-off, government-sanctioned intranet. But foreigners had previously been able to surf the Web with almost no overt restrictions, though most likely with behind-the-scenes monitoring of their Internet activities.

37 comments

  1. awww, they picked the best ones by turkeydance · · Score: 2

    to block. just like my wife's office job.

    1. Re:awww, they picked the best ones by pr0fessor · · Score: 2

      My wife manages a convenience store and has that problem with employees that bring their cell phones to work... she will make them watch themselves play on their phone on security recording in fast forward before firing them. Really, 4-6 hours out of 8 hour shift spent on snap chat and facebook and you think no one would notice?

      We once had a woman that was trying to do web design on the side and was working on her client's websites while in the office for 3-4 hours a day.

    2. Re: awww, they picked the best ones by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You get what you pay for

    3. Re: awww, they picked the best ones by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I don't think pay is the issue. we've had employees here do the same thing, and believe me, they are very well paid, high 5-figure, low 6-figure salaries.

      Sometimes, people just aren't motivated, and really should just move on, but it's a two way street.

    4. Re: awww, they picked the best ones by tom229 · · Score: 0

      Poor management policies. The average manager is taught to value rote punctuality heavily over anything else. Employee morale is usually the very last thing they care about. The gradual atrophy of the quality of the business degree is slowly ruining western society. It's time to rethink the hardcore capitalist approach to everything. An incentive based management policy with more relaxed code of conduct will produce far better employees than treating everyone like a disposable robot, even if that's all they are to you.

      --
      If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
  2. Again? by fbobraga · · Score: 1

    This April's foll joke was not fun anymore...

  3. They didn't before? by NotDrWho · · Score: 5, Funny

    Bad news for the 10 people there with internet then, I guess.

    --
    SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
    1. Re:They didn't before? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Which people? Kim Jong-Un and which other person?

    2. Re:They didn't before? by U2xhc2hkb3QgU3Vja3M · · Score: 1

      You really think there's 10 people in North Korea with Internet access?

      Aren't you the optimist.

    3. Re:They didn't before? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      There are 10 types of people, those who can count to 10 and those who cannot.

    4. Re:They didn't before? by Flavianoep · · Score: 5, Funny

      Kim has a brother, two sisters and a wife, so there is internet access for at least 101 people.

      --
      Linux is for people who don't mind RTFM.
    5. Re:They didn't before? by Jason+Levine · · Score: 1

      You really think there's 10 people in North Korea with Internet access?

      Aren't you the optimist.

      He was counting in binary.

      --
      My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
  4. But how will they see cat videos? by jfdavis668 · · Score: 1

    Don't they understand that cats are far happier in the imperialist west than in North Korea?

    1. Re:But how will they see cat videos? by twotacocombo · · Score: 1

      I'd assume they still have some form of Food Network over there, for those lucky enough to not have had to burn their tv set for fuel this winter.

    2. Re:But how will they see cat videos? by jfdavis668 · · Score: 2

      /. needs a "like" button

  5. It's way too easy to block things on the internet. by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

    We need to make it impossible, and to make the internet indelible.

    --
    “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
  6. Correlation with these headlines? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I wonder if North Korea (and China, who has been increasing their paranoia along these lines as well) are being prompted by the appearance in "western media" of headlines like this one: https://aeon.co/essays/is-the-black-hole-at-our-galaxy-s-centre-a-quantum-computer

  7. Two part strategy to deny access to USA websites by JoeyRox · · Score: 1

    First part is to block Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. Second part is to not provide internet access in the first place (at least to the non-elite).

  8. In other news..... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    North Korea's average IQ increased by 5 points since the blocking.

    1. Re:In other news..... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So from 68 to 73?

    2. Re:In other news..... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      100 to 105 ;)

      [just kidding, IQ tests are bunk]

    3. Re:In other news..... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      GPA's went up 0.5 points and worker productivity doubled too. People went outside in nature and realized that there was more to life than looking at a screen.

      Honestly, I'm not sure there won't be a movement to block social media here in the West pretty soon once people realize how much of their lives are being wasted on it.

  9. Youtube by dejitaru · · Score: 1

    Well their youtube propaganda channel (uriminzokkiri) is still uploading videos. I wonder if a foreigner in North Korea can view it...

  10. Sure it's not just for today? by SuperKendall · · Score: 1

    I'm right there with them. Shut it down, shut it *all* down. Until April 2nd anyway.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    1. Re:Sure it's not just for today? by neilo_1701D · · Score: 1

      I'm right there with them. Shut it down, shut it *all* down. Until April 2nd anyway.

      "Dark City" in more ways than one, then...

    2. Re:Sure it's not just for today? by ItsJustAPseudonym · · Score: 2

      At least they still have Shell Beach.

  11. Re:Two part strategy to deny access to USA website by Actually,+I+do+RTFA · · Score: 2

    Second part is to not provide internet access in the first place (at least to the non-elite).

    In the Democratic People's Republic of North Korea, Second Step happens first!

    --
    Your ad here. Ask me how!
  12. Eliminating "SLASHVERTISMENT: " from articles by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Using "FoxReplace" on Firefox makes it easy to get rid of the stupid "SLASHVERTISMENT: " text string at the beginning of each article title that makes the site hard to read.

    1. Re:Eliminating "SLASHVERTISMENT: " from articles by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      text string at the beginning of each article title that makes the site hard to read.

      Do you have a learning disability, or something?

  13. Kim hates being last with memes by swb · · Score: 2

    I'm sure Kim just hated being last with memes. He's walking around with his iPad and showing some meme to his minions and he's like "This one is awesome!!111" and everyone's like "yeah, I saw it last week when your sister showed it to me."

    1. Re:Kim hates being last with memes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Is the meme his sister's tits/vag?

  14. Re:Two part strategy to deny access to USA website by JoeyRox · · Score: 1

    That's true but the quip is funnier in the opposite sequence :)

  15. Re:Two part strategy to deny access to USA website by Zaowulf · · Score: 1

    In Second Step happens first, Democratic People's Republic of North Korea! ...I don't get it

  16. They going to ban April Fools Day, too? by kheldan · · Score: 1

    THIS JUST IN: Following in the footsteps of their neighbor and ally, China, North Korea today has decreed that by law no fun of any kind is allowed at any time, under penalty of death. Citizens are quoted as saying "Meh, so they're not changing anything?"

    --
    Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
  17. I've never wanted to be North Korean by zapadnik · · Score: 1

    I've never wanted to be North Korean, until now. I will gladly welcome our nuclear-armed North Korean overlords if they can get rid of the decadent capitalist imperialist degeneracies of Facebook and Twitter. We'll keep Youtube, it's too good at distributing cultural Marxist Political Correctness - and the proletariat don't even realize it !

    Happy Revolutionary April Day, comrades.

    Oh, and we'll replace Facebook and Twitting with The People's Cube
    http://thepeoplescube.com/
    Pobeda !

  18. Oh no! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Who cares, North Korea is garbage. Their announcements are garbage, and their leadership is garbage.

  19. but not slashdot? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    maybe they're saving slashdot for when they get really, really angry..