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Instagram block adds speed bump to DPRK’s Internet access
It was always a bit of a paradox: in the country with some of the strictest censorship on the planet, Internet access for the lucky ones that had even less restrictions than neighboring China. In North Korea, the Internet divide between the elite and the rest of the country couldn’t have been wider: you either had everything or you…
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3G Internet service said to resume in Pyongyang
Foreigners in Pyongyang can once again access the Internet from their smartphones, according to a report. Service was suspended last Friday because of an Internet connection problem with no estimated time of restoration, according to a message sent to subscribers by carrier Koryolink. The outage and message were reported by Reuters. During the outage, websites hosted…
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North Korea is second worst for press freedom in latest CPJ survey
North Korea is the second most-censored nation on earth, according to a new ranking by the Committee to Protect Journalists. For anyone that knows North Korea or has been paying attention to press freedom studies and rankings, the news hardly comes as a surprise. The government has complete control over the news media, which is limited…
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Report: Twitter, Facebook blocked in North Korea
North Korea has begun blocking access to Twitter and Facebook on domestic Internet connections offered to foreigners, according to a report last week. If correct, the move is apparently the first active blocking of Internet access by the North Korean government and comes at a time when it appears to be slowly tightening the screws on…
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North Korea bans WiFi at embassies
North Korea has banned the use of satellite Internet connections and WiFi networks by foreign embassies and international organizations unless they get government approval. The switch, which came in mid August, gives credibility to an earlier report that unencrypted wireless networks at embassies were being used by North Korean citizens to gain uncensored access to…
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Koryolink moves to plug censorship loophole
North Korea’s sole 3G mobile network operator has moved to plug a potential gap in the country’s considerable national censorship regime. The loophole could have provided North Koreans with unrestricted access to international phone calls and Internet access and relied on the prepaid SIM cards that have been available to tourists since February 2013. The…
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South Korea’s Supreme Court confirms acquittal of Pyongyang retweeter
South Korea’s top court has upheld the acquittal of a free-speech activist for retweeting North Korean tweets, according to several local media reports. Park Jung-geun, a Seoul-based photographer, was arrested under the country’s anti-communist National Security Law for a series of tweets posted in late 2010 and early 2011. They included retweets from Uriminzokkiri, a China-based website with…
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“Hack North Korea” focuses Silicon Valley on information flow
A hackathon that aimed to find new ways to get information in, out and around North Korea took place over the weekend in San Francisco. The event, called “Hack North Korea,” was organized by New York-based charity Human Rights Foundation and brought together programmers, human rights campaigners and defectors. Several teams spent the weekend working on ideas…
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North Korea attacks US funding of anti-censorship projects
North Korea’s state-run news agency issued a sharp criticism over the weekend of U.S. funding of technology projects that attack censorship. The commentary, published on Saturday, points to dissatisfaction among the North Korean elite with U.S. funding of projects that enable the free flow of information and bypass Internet censorship. It comes as U.S. State Dept.’s Bureau of Democracy,…
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DPRK organizations called out for censorship
Three of North Korea’s state security and censorship organizations have been called out by Reporters Without Borders in the organization’s latest ranking of “Enemies of the Internet.” The report was published on Wednesday, which RSF and Amnesty International have named world day against cyber censorship. The three organizations named by RSF are the Central Scientific and…
