Video shared on social media in March 2024 showed North Koreans pretending to use the internet.
On March 11, 2024, a video went viral on X (formerly Twitter) purportedly showing North Koreans pretending to use the internet. “North Korea’s internet looks like this,” one viral article reads X postswhich has been viewed more than 14 million times as of this writing:
North Korea: Yes, we have internet access
North Korea’s Internet looks like this: pic.twitter.com/GKbMGvea4b
— History Video (@historyinmemes) March 11, 2024
In short, this 2013 video is real, and its producers say the venue in the video was “designed to make us believe [North Korea] Just like the rest of the world has access to the internet, we know that’s not true. ” Therefore, we rate this statement as True.
The clip appears (around 15:45) in the “Hermit Kingdom” episode of the “Vice” documentary series, which was released in 2013 and can be viewed on YouTube:
Video shows a Vice reporter visiting a computer lab in North Korea, where the students’ silence and lack of activity suggested it was a staged environment rather than a real situation.
During the visit, reporters met a North Korean student who claimed to be working with European scientists on string theory, in stark contrast to the limits of information known about the country. The overall impression is that the visit was carefully planned to distort the reality of internet access and academic freedom in North Korea.
Below is our transcription of relevant footage from the documentary:
Narrator: Next they took us to a computer lab where students were using the Internet. Your first thought is: Well, this looks just like any lab at home at the university. But then you notice complete silence. No one does anything, no typing, no mouse clicks, nothing. We see a person browsing the Google homepage, but he is not searching for anything. He just stared blankly at the screen. The guy we saw there who looked like he actually knew how to use a computer was of course the guy they wanted us to meet.
North Korean student: Hi, nice to meet you.
Reporter: Nice to meet you too. Sorry to disturb you while you are working.
North Korean student: Yes, I am looking for papers published in journals. This is about string theory, which was done in collaboration with some foreign scientists in Europe.
Reporter: Oh, wow, yeah, that’s great.
NARRATOR: Given North Korea’s reputation for total suppression of information, this interception is obviously meant to make us believe they have access to the internet like the rest of the world, but we know that’s not the case. It makes us wonder, is what we’re seeing real? It felt like we were experiencing a real live “Truman Show” created just for us. Everywhere we went and everything we saw and heard conveyed messages that were completely contrary to what we knew about North Korea.
The website of People for Success Corean Reunification, a Seoul-based NGO that advocates for human rights in North Korea, provides information on Internet usage in the country, stating that “most North Koreans are unaware of the existence of the global Internet, as they can access North Korea through the Internet “. Banned since its invention. ” It continues (emphasis ours):
This is done to block the inflow of external information and protect the stability of the regime. Instead, North Korean citizens are using the state-controlled national intranet, an alternative that is heavily censored and restricted. Only a small group of citizens has access to the global World Wide Web, such as government officials, professional researchers, and workers abroad.
North Korea’s restrictions on access to the global Internet and intranets pose serious concerns for the political, social, and economic freedoms of North Korean citizens.
The organization released a 2021 report titled “A New Frontier for Human Rights: Digital Rights in North Korea” that dives deep into the topic.
The report’s preface states: “North Koreans are subject to extensive government control over their use of the Internet and personal digital devices, which is unimaginable to most people because in this new digital world, the Internet has become a part of people’s daily lives. Part of it.”
This isn’t the first time we’ve fact-checked footage from North Korea. For example, in January 2024, we verified the authenticity of a viral video of Kim Jong Un watching a volleyball match. In April 2017, we investigated whether missiles displayed during North Korea’s military parade were fake.