Internet Censorship In China and North Korea

Both China and North Korea are notoriously known as communist/militant nations that have tight grips on all media systems within their respective countries. In addition to the heavy censorship of all news outlets, the Internet in both nations is subject to major governmental control.

I'll begin with China. In China, if one was to look up terms like "tiananmen", "Tibet", "Tawain", or "toilets", there would be no search results. This is because these words paint a negative image of China that the government does not want its people to know about. In addition to censoring search terms, social websites like Facebook, Twitter, Wordpress, Flickr, and Google are blocked in China. Even G-Mail is not allowed! The reason none of these sites are allowed is because they are all blocked by China's "Great Firewall" (Jacobs).

To the east of China lies North Korea, a country that is even more controlling of its Internet than the Chinese. North Korea owns every media entity within its borders and allows limited Internet usage to only a select few. North Korea has even gone as far as to create its own "Intranet" that is limited to certain groups and also subject to censored content. Every piece of literature, media, or cinema is utilized as a means to promote the stature of the Kim family (Sedaghat).

Both examples of China and North Korea make me appreciate the freedom I have to access any site on the Internet here in the United States. I could not imagine living in a country where I could not blog or research any topic I was interested in. I do feel, however, that China is getting a bit more lax with its Internet restrictions and should be making progress towards a more accessible Internet for its people in the years to come! For North Korea, I see no unrestricted Internet access in the imminent future as long as the Kim family retains power and the country remains totalitarian.

Sources:

          Jacobs, Andrew. "China Further Tightens Grip on the Internet." The New York Times. The New York Times, 29 Jan. 2015. Web. 5 Feb. 2015. <http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/30/world/asia/china-clamps-down-still-harder-on-internet-access.html?ref=topics&_r=0>.

          Sedaghat, Nouran. "North Korea Exposed: Censorship in the World's Most Secretive State | CJFE." North Korea Exposed: Censorship in the World's Most Secretive State | CJFE. 17 Mar. 2014. Web. 5 Feb. 2015. <https://cjfe.org/resources/features/north-korea-exposed-censorship-world’s-most-secretive-state>.