How people live in North Korea and China, where the Internet is strictly limited

Thanks to the Internet, you can find a friend on the other side of the world and only time zones will separate you. But imagine what you would feel if tomorrow didn’t have that opportunity. This is what happens to millions of people around the world who cannot communicate with whom they would like to and cannot visit the web pages we love so much. They don’t have Facebook, YouTube or Twitter accounts. These are mainly Chinese and North Koreans.

O awesome.club found out how internet is limited in these countries and prepared a little bonus at the end of the post.

To create your own website, you have to go through a long and tedious registration process with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. Otherwise nobody will allow you to have a web page. The Chinese government periodically blocks all of Wikipedia or some of its pages. The blacklist includes articles on “sensitive” issues such as the Tiananmen Square massacre, when students were dispersed with military tanks during a demonstration in 1989, which resulted in many innocent citizens being injured. The blockade is carried out with the aim of combating the propaganda of violence in the media. At the service of the state, we find a whole army of bloggers, “members” of the so-called “Party of 50 cents”. That’s exactly what each participant gains by writing a post or a comment on the Internet. The main task of this army is to positively evaluate the actions of the government. According to estimates of The Guardian, the total number of these modern militants is 300 thousand people. Members of the “50 Cent Party” are supposed to instantly refute and ridicule any post that harms or vilifies the state.

Chinese Internet users learned to encrypt text that would bypass censorship. To achieve this, they use the “Martian” language, a mixture of hieroglyphs from different origins (generally drawn with intentional errors), Arabic numerals and English jargon. Since 2003, in China there has been a special government project called “Golden Shield”, which limits citizens’ access to foreign websites. Its unofficial name is “China’s Great Firewall”. The same project also controls hyperlinks leading to foreign media or blogs. The fact is that not a single Chinese site can link or translate news from other countries without special permission. Chinese are prohibited from using popular services such as YouTube, Twitter, Gmail, Google Play, Google Docs, Flickr, WhatsApp and Facebook. Such sites are simply not available on the territory of the country.

The largest analogue of global social networks in China is Sina Weibo. In order to register, the user must provide the details of his identity and his real place of residence. In 2013, an Internet hoax law was enacted. If a user disclosed unconfirmed information and received more than 5,000 hits or more than 500 shares, he could be sentenced to three years in prison. The artificial intelligence Piyao, called “rumor slanderer”, helps to identify violations of this law.

Only organizations that have received official permission can access the Internet in this country. Among them, we find three universities, scientific laboratories, security services and ministries, such as Foreign Affairs. All computers are in special rooms, which can only be accessed with a password. The rest of North Koreans use an intranet (national internet), called Kwangmyong. According to various estimates, this network has between 1,000 and 5,500 sites. It is extremely difficult to count them because most are not accessible to global Internet users. In 2017, a computer scientist from the United States published on the Internet a complete list of North Korean websites that can be accessed by an ordinary person from anywhere in the world. And they were only 28.

The North Korean intranet mainly publishes information about the head of state, including a detailed day-to-day agenda, but there are also entertainment portals with movies, recipes and recommendations for tourists. They also have a general chat called “My Country”, which is divided into subsections for those who are interested in a certain topic: computers, movies, arts and the like. In the country there are no social networks like Facebook or Twitter, unless the rest of the world knows. Each computer must be registered with the police. For this purpose, there is a special “Group 109”, created in 2004. Periodically, the members of this operation routinely and unscheduled check each device to detect electronic piracy. As a general rule, they look for foreign films and music.

44% of the world’s population still does not have access to the Internet due to poverty or the policies of their own country. In Ethiopia, of its 100 million inhabitants, only 15 million have access to the Internet. In particular, this responds to the high prices of the connection: the cheapest tariff costs 26.5 dollars (about 105 reais, which probably does not allow you to download much) and the most expensive, 155 dollars (620 reais). And this at the same time that many people have a salary equal to the cost of an expensive Internet package. French citizens are afraid to visit sites with links to Torrent and other piracy sites, because the French government is actively fighting against illegal downloading of movies and music. After the first visit to these pages, an official letter is sent asking you to refrain from doing so. On the second visit, another letter, and if you violate the ban for the third time, further measures will apply. Even your Internet access can be cut off. Indian authorities reserve the right to disconnect an entire region from the network, in case its inhabitants are suspected of some kind of illegal conspiracy.

Which of the facts surprised you the most? Share your thoughts with us in the comments.