Internet Censorship In North Korea

Their system of filtering and censorship is acknowledged as the most advanced and effective in the world. The Chinese internet system includes about thirty-thousand censors, as well as having web browsers, such as Google and Yahoo, censor their results.10 For an average citizen to publish their opinions without either an elite free speech patron or a willing government publishing house, the safest method is to publicize their thoughts through an internet bulletin board system run by the Chinese government.11 However, these electronic bulletin boards are required by the law to be licensed, the posts monitored constantly, and any posts which are found to be “inappropriate” are removed. Any forums that are free from government censorship are forbidden, since the Chinese authorities refuse to recognize the rights of the citizens to publish their uncensored opinions. Furthermore, if debates over political or other issues begin to take a life of their own, they are commonly silenced by Chinese authorities.12 The Chinese authorities only permit these monitored bulletin boards both for their own benefit and because they recognize that there must be outlets for the average person to express their dissatisfaction with the government.13 Allowing the citizens to speak their mind functions to lessen the political tension, by acting as a release for their discontentment. These boards also serve as an excuse to deflect criticism by other countries, who complain that people in China do not enjoy freedom of expression. Additionally, they allow government authorities to monitor the mood of their people and to find weaknesses, both in the government and in their support. Finally, the bulletin boards allow government authorities to track those who express discontent, keeping their expressions visible, so the authorities can trace these

When one uses the internet in China, the person must always understand… he or she is being watched. In China, over 100,000 government enforcers work to censor or block unwanted information from Chinese and foreign websites. Much of this information being shot down includes talk of democracy, the very opposite of the Chinese Communist Party’s ideas. Censorship of internet and media in China has been brought by its Communist government who have wanted to shield the Chinese people from undesired ideas, such as democracy, that could start a large revolt of citizens demanding government reforms. On October 1, 1949, Mao Zedong founded the People’s Republic of China after he and his Communist supporters defeated the nationalists, beginning a new era for China of strict totalitarian rule. When Mao died in 1976, the country was left in ruins from Mao’s failed plans. A new leader, Deng Xiaoping, emerged and made reforms allowing open-market capitalism in the economy that changed China into a powerful country. Yet, Deng stayed with a totalitarian government that still had harsh crackdowns such as the June 4, 1989 Tiananmen Massacre and today censorship law. Some may argue that it is necessary the Chinese government continue to censor foreign websites and information in order to ensure the public’s safety and trust. Although the Chinese government states that censorship is necessary to ensure citizens’ safety, it will threaten the country’s future success because it constricts

Censorship in China has gained much attention recently because of the conflict between Google and the Chinese government’s self-censorship policies. In fact, censorship has been practiced since ancient China and the intensity only increases by the years. Nowadays, the most notable measure of censorship is being done on the Internet. More and more restrictions have been put into actions by the Chinese government, which make the life of Chinese Internet users, the Chinese netizens, very inconvenient. With the intensity of censorship increasing and the censoring technology improving, Internet censorship has mainly negative effects on Chinese society.

The Internet’s continuous advancement has produced the need for an on-going debate on whether or not the government should have the power to control the Internet. The idea of the government having control over what each country’s citizens can see on the Internet is also called Internet Censorship. Internet Censorship “is the control or suppression of the publishing of, or access to information on the Internet.” Internet Censorship varies from country to country depending on each country’s current usage and philosophy of how it should be used. (toptenreviews.com) Currently, there are ten countries including

North Korea filters information through a network to only let acceptable information into their country. Factors that contribute to the restrictions of North Korea’s press might be that they are so close the South Korea, and don’t want their people seeing what is happening in South Korea, or they have fabricated some sort of alternative universe in North Korea to blind it’s citizens from the real world. But this isn’t the first time two places have been split by a wall, whether it be technological or

The world is full of millions of people who simply surf the web at their own will, checking their e-mail or even going on social networking sites. In Australia, however, this Internet freedom that we used to exercise is rapidly going down the drain. Ever since September 2013, the Abbott Government has enforced their policy on Internet censorship and since then, it has become a government-regulated activity. Internet Censorship is too pervasive – it invades privacy, problems are created abroad – after all, the Internet was made to be freely accessible by all and it should continue to be like that.

George Bernard Shaw once said, “The first condition of progress is the removal of censorship.” Internet censorship is the control or suppression of what can be accessed, published, or viewed on the Internet. In other words, one day you might not be able to Google everything you want to know as you can now. Although the Internet can be a dangerous without caution, countries need not to censor the Internet for their own selfish reasons. Internet censorship is a form of a dictatorship, and they can cause riots as well as take away our first amendment right.

With today’s technology, communication and information can travel across the world in a matter of seconds. Ever since the internet was first made publically available in 1991 the ease of accessing entertainment, education, and information has been increasing every year. We now live in an age where roughly 30% of all people in the entire world are connected to the web ("World Internet Usage Statistics New and World Population Stats"). However, despite the obvious advantages of the internet’s freedom, some countries are trying to control the internet and display what it deems appropriate for the public eye. Many countries, including Australia, China, and North Korea implement a system to filter web content. Even the United States is now

On the other hand, the US does not actively regulate the internet, relying on the public to regulate content on the internet, with little government intervention. The internet in the US is relatively open, whereas in China, information on the internet is suppressed based on what the Chinese government deems appropriate or inappropriate. Hillary Clinton, US Secretary of State, has stated, “Countries that heavily censor the ‘Net are creating a new ‘Information Curtain’ to rival the old Iron Curtain of the Cold War era.”(Anderson)

China is well known for their Great Firewall that blocks numerous of sites from the outside world. However, not many people may know the true extent of China’s censorship on the internet. Most people know China’s block on almost all American social media websites such as Facebook and Twitter. China not only censors materials from the outside, but also censors what their citizens post or what they see from Chinese websites. China’s internet is strictly censored and this has resulted in many rebellions from the Chinese citizens; on the other hand, China has become an influential figure for their creations on the internet such as their mobile applications.

Now any website or web service also had to monitor and self-sensor any information from their services that might contain material that might be harmful to the state. In the same year “The Measures for Managing Internet Information Services” outlined what and how hosts should monitor Internet traffic. This document explicitly stated which forms of speech are not expectable. Any speech or information, harmful to the state, containing differing views on religion, or those that may cause disorder or lead to national disunity have been stated.

My research project explored the extent of internet censorship and its necessity to China as a form of societal protection. It discussed the advantages, disadvantages and impacts of censorship on Chinese society. As I researched the topic, I determined that censoring parts of the internet was more than just about protecting the young Chinese children from online predators and distressing content. My initial intention was to highlight the wrongfulness of widespread censorship however, as I researched, I was able to understand that censoring parts of the internet improved the Chinese economy, prevented cybercrimes from occurring while concurrently offering online safety. I discovered this by analysing several different websites, YouTube videos and conducting two interviews with people with expertise in the Chinese internet. My outcome, presented in the form of a feature article, explained that censoring parts of the internet benefits society more than it harms.

According to the textbook, censorship is a way used by governments or religious institutions to supervise or regulate the public access to offensive or harmful materials (Quinn 2012, p.496). Internet censorship applies the same discipline which regulates the public access to harmful content on internet. Nowadays, internet is a place with huge potential for growth. Statistics suggest that the total growth of new internet users is 566.4% from December 31, 2000 to 2012 (Internet World Stats 2012) (Refer to Appendix one). In the mean time, the resources and contents on the internet are growing rapidly at an uncontrollable rate. To some extent, there are almost no

There is only one cyber cafe in North Korea, and it is in Pyongyang, North Korea's capital city. North Korea “built its own custom-built operating system”(Lee), which is named Red Star. It is used on the computers in Pyongyang's cyber cafe. One crazy rule in North Korea is every time Kim Jong Un’s name shows up anywhere on any page on the internet, it has to be programmed on every pages code to be slightly bigger than the rest of the text on that page, “just enough to make it stand out” (Lee). The people of North Korea are “intentionally starved” out of any information except government propaganda (Lee). If you want to buy a computer in North Korea, it will probably cost about “three months of your salary, so people rarely do. They only have one high-speed internet cable while other countries like the United Kingdom, and the United States of America have “dozens” of them, so if one of the links fail we will be able to maintain it. North Korea won't be able to. It is easier for North Korea to control though with only one cable. (Sparks) Other countries like Russia try to use other countries ideas. Russia is trying to “copy” what China is doing with their internet. At first Russia’s internet was mostly free of censorship, but after a large anti-corruption protest in russia that was created through the use of the internet, Vladimir Putin feels that Russia’s internet should be more like China's. In

By having complete control over the few entities and their network connections, the Chinese government is able to monitor and regulate the Internet more effectively. Sherman, co-author of “Red Wired: China’s Internet Revolution”, explained that “China is not on the Internet, it's basically an intranet. Everything is banned by the Great Firewall”. Although Internet is accessible outside of China, the vast majority of the population refuse to use it because it is so inconvenient (Herold, 2012). For instance, recurrent time-outs, very slow Internet connection, and the content