North Korean websites banned in South Korea
Encyclopedia
Censorship in South Korea
South Korea
The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...
is the limiting or suppressing of the publishing, dissemination, and viewing of certain information in South Korea.
Education
On February 15th 2011, a university professor in Handong Global UniversityHandong Global University
Handong Global University is a privately run, four-year university located in Pohang, North Gyeongsang province, South Korea.- Overview :...
was penalized for criticizing Lee Myung-bak and the university chancellor.
Internet
The nation of South KoreaSouth Korea
The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...
is a world leader in Internet and broadband penetration, but its citizens do not have access to free and unfiltered Internet. South Korea’s government maintains a broad-ranging approach toward the regulation of specific online content and imposes a substantial level of censorship on election-related discourse and on a large number of websites that the government deems subversive or socially harmful. Such policies are particularly pronounced with regard to anonymity on the Internet.
The OpenNet Initiative
OpenNet Initiative
The OpenNet Initiative is a joint project whose goal is to monitor and report on internet filtering and surveillance practices by nations. The project employs a number of technical means, as well as an international network of investigators, to determine the extent and nature of government-run...
classifies Internet censorship
Internet censorship
Internet censorship is the control or suppression of the publishing of, or access to information on the Internet. It may be carried out by governments or by private organizations either at the behest of government or on their own initiative...
in South Korea as pervasive in the conflict/security area, as substantial in the social area, and found no evidence of filtering in the political and Internet tools areas. In 2011 South Korea was included on Reporters Without Borders
Reporters Without Borders
Reporters Without Borders is a France-based international non-governmental organization that advocates freedom of the press. It was founded in 1985, by Robert Ménard, Rony Brauman and the journalist Jean-Claude Guillebaud. Jean-François Julliard has served as Secretary General since 2008...
list of countries Under Surveillance.
In September 2004, North Korea
North Korea
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea , , is a country in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Pyongyang. The Korean Demilitarized Zone serves as the buffer zone between North Korea and South Korea...
launched the Kim Il-sung
Kim Il-sung
Kim Il-sung was a Korean communist politician who led the Democratic People's Republic of Korea from its founding in 1948 until his death in 1994. He held the posts of Prime Minister from 1948 to 1972 and President from 1972 to his death...
Open University website,
www.ournation-school.com. Only three days later, Internet providers in South Korea were ordered by the National Police AgencyNational Police Agency (South Korea)
South Korea has a relatively unified and integrated approach law enforcement. For example, the National Police Agency provides all policing services throughout the country...
, National Intelligence Service
National Intelligence Service (South Korea)
The National Intelligence Service is the chief intelligence agency of South Korea. The agency was officially established in 1961 as the Korea Central Intelligence Agency , during the rule of President Park Chung-hee's military Supreme Council for National Reconstruction, which displaced the...
(NIS) and the Ministry of Information and Communication (MIC) to block connections to the site, as well as more than 30 others, including Minjok Tongshin, Choson Sinbo
Choson Sinbo
The Choson Sinbo is a newspaper based in Japan, published in both Korean and Japanese. The name literally means 'Chosun Newspaper'. It is published by the General Association of Korean Residents, a pro-North Korea representative body for Zainichi Koreans, who also run The People's Korea , an...
, Chosun Music, North Korea Info Bank, DPRK Stamp and Uriminzokkiri
Uriminzokkiri
Uriminzokkiri is the official website of the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea, distributing information over the web and, since August 2010, over Twitter. Articles of North Korean media are seen at the site....
.
In 2007, numerous bloggers were censored and their posts deleted by police for expressing criticism of, or even support for, presidential candidates. This even lead to some bloggers being arrested by the police. Subsequently in 2008, just before a new presidential election, new legislation that required all major internet portal sites to require identity verification of their users was put into effect. This applies to all users who add any publicly viewable content. For example, to post a comment on a news article, a user registration and citizen identity number verification is required. For foreigners who do not have such numbers, a copy of passport must be faxed and verified. Although this law was initially met with public outcry, as of 2008, most of the major portals, including Daum, Naver, Nate, and Yahoo Korea, enforce such verification before the user can post any material that is publicly viewable. Youtube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
refused to conform to the law, instead opting to disable the commenting feature on its Korean site.
Also, South Korea has banned at least 31 sites
North Korean websites banned in South Korea
Censorship in South Korea is the limiting or suppressing of the publishing, dissemination, and viewing of certain information in South Korea.-Education:...
considered sympathetic to North Korea
North Korea
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea , , is a country in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Pyongyang. The Korean Demilitarized Zone serves as the buffer zone between North Korea and South Korea...
through the use of IP blocking. The actions may be in response the to the North's clampdown on Southern radio and television, which has been severely restricted for a long time.
Most North Korean websites are hosted overseas in the United States, Japan and the People's Republic of China. Critics say that the only practical way of blocking a webpage is by denying its IP address
IP address
An Internet Protocol address is a numerical label assigned to each device participating in a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol for communication. An IP address serves two principal functions: host or network interface identification and location addressing...
, and since many of the North Korean sites are hosted on large servers together with hundreds of other sites, the impact on the number of real blocked pages increase significantly. Estimates are that over 3,000 additional webpages are rendered inaccessible.
Since 2008 illegal websites such as unrated games, pornography, gambling, etc., have also been blocked. Attempts to access these sites are automatically redirected to the warning page showing "This site is legally blocked by the government regulations."
Search engines are required to verify age for some keywords deemed inappropriate for minors. For such keywords, age verification using national identity number is required. For foreigners, a copy of passport must be faxed to verify the age. As of 2008, practically all large search engine companies in South Korea, including foreign-owned companies (e.g. Yahoo! Korea), have complied with this legislation. In April 2009 when the Communication Commission ordered user verification be put on the system at YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
, Google Korea blocked video uploading from users whose country setting is Korean.
In August 2010, the South Korean government blocked a twitter
Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
account operated by the North.
South Korean president Lee Myung-bak
Lee Myung-bak
Lee Myung-bak is the President of South Korea. Prior to his presidency, he was the CEO of Hyundai Engineering and Construction and the mayor of Seoul. He is married to Kim Yoon-ok and has three daughters and one son. His older brother is Lee Sang-deuk, a South Korean politician. He attends the...
's year 2011 policies include cracking down on pro-North Korean comments on social network sites like Facebook
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
and Twitter
Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
.
On December 21, 2010, the Korea Communications Commission
Korea Communications Commission
Korea Communications Commission is a South Korean media regulation agency modeled after the Federal Communications Commission of the United States of America. It was established on February 29, 2008...
controversially announced that it is planning to create a guideline about monitoring the internet content in case of a tense political situation; automatically deleting any online anti-governmental message that could lead to internet censorship
Internet censorship
Internet censorship is the control or suppression of the publishing of, or access to information on the Internet. It may be carried out by governments or by private organizations either at the behest of government or on their own initiative...
.
In January 2011, a South Korean man was arrested for praising North Korea through social networking sites.
On September 6th, 2011, the Electronic Frontier Foundation
Electronic Frontier Foundation
The Electronic Frontier Foundation is an international non-profit digital rights advocacy and legal organization based in the United States...
criticized the Korea Communications Standards Commission
Korea Communications Standards Commission
The Korea Communications Standards Commission is South Korea's Internet censorship body.The KCSC replaced an earlier body, the Information and Communication Ethics Committee....
for proposing censorship and restriction on a blog of an internet free speech activist, Dr. Gyeong-sin Park.
Music
In November 2010, a woman was sentenced to two years in prison for the possession of MP3s of instrumentalInstrumental
An instrumental is a musical composition or recording without lyrics or singing, although it might include some non-articulate vocal input; the music is primarily or exclusively produced by musical instruments....
music, on the grounds that the titles constituted praise of North Korea, notwithstanding the actual music's lack of lyrics.
Government Youth Commission classifies songs as "medium offensive to youth" for songs that they consider it "stimulates sex desire or sexually explicit to youth", "urges violence or crime to youth", "glamorizes violence such as rape, and drugs"...
Broadcasting
The Korea Communications CommissionKorea Communications Commission
Korea Communications Commission is a South Korean media regulation agency modeled after the Federal Communications Commission of the United States of America. It was established on February 29, 2008...
is a government agency that censors TV, radio, and internet within South Korea.
External links
- Red Still Best Kept Under the Bed by Jiyeon Lee, GlobalPostGlobalPostGlobalPost is an online US news company that focuses on international news. It wants "to redefine international news for the digital age."-History and management:...
, April 23, 2009 - Is Internet Censorship Compatible with Democracy?: Legal Restrictions of Online Speech in South Korea by Eric Fish, October 31, 2009
- Collateral Blocking: Filtering by South Korean Government of Pro-North Korean Websites, OpenNet Initiative Bulletin 9, 31 January 2005