72°F
weather icon Clear

North Korea blocking Facebook, Twitter, websites

PYONGYANG, North Korea — North Korea has officially announced it is blocking Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and South Korean websites in a move underscoring its concern with the spread of online information.

The Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications announcement was posted this week at the country’s main mobile service provider, Koryolink, and other places serving Internet users.

It said “anti-republic false propaganda websites, sex and adult websites” are blocked, along with YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Voice of America and South Korean media sites. Such sites had been informally blocked for months, and they could not be accessed Friday in a Web search from Pyongyang.

Very few North Koreans have Internet access. Typically they can only see a sealed-off, government-sanctioned intranet. But foreigners in the country had previously been able to surf the Web freely.

MOST READ
Don't miss the big stories. Like us on Facebook.
THE LATEST
Hulk Hogan, icon in professional wrestling, dies at 71

Hulk Hogan won a world championship in Las Vegas in 1993 and was a fixture for years, facing everyone from Andre The Giant and Randy Savage to The Rock and WWE chairman Vince McMahon.

MORE STORIES