North Korea Officially Blocks Facebook, Twitter and YouTube

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.

awww, they picked the best ones

[turkeydance]

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

Re:

[pr0fessor]

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.

Re:

[tom229]

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

Again?

[fbobraga]

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

They didn't before?

[NotDrWho]

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

Re:

[U2xhc2hkb3QgU3Vja3M]

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

Aren't you the optimist.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

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

Re:They didn't before?

[Flavianoep]

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

Re:

[Jason Levine]

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

Aren't you the optimist.

He was counting in binary.

But how will they see cat videos?

[jfdavis668]

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

Re:

[twotacocombo]

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.

Re:

[jfdavis668]

/. needs a "like" button

It's way too easy to block things on the internet.

[fustakrakich]

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

Two part strategy to deny access to USA websites

[JoeyRox]

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).

Re:

[Actually, I do RTFA]

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!

Re:

[JoeyRox]

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

Re:

[Zaowulf]

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

In other news.....

[Anonymous Coward]

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

Youtube

[dejitaru]

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

Sure it's not just for today?

[SuperKendall]

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

Re:

[neilo_1701D]

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...

Re:

[ItsJustAPseudonym]

At least they still have Shell Beach.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

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

Do you have a learning disability, or something?

Kim hates being last with memes

[swb]

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."

They going to ban April Fools Day, too?

[kheldan]

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?"

I've never wanted to be North Korean

[zapadnik]

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/ [thepeoplescube.com]
Pobeda !