by Demand:
A video shared on social media in March 2024 shows North Koreans pretending to use the internet.
Rating:
On March 11, 2024, a video went viral on X (formerly Twitter), which allegedly shows North Koreans pretending to use the internet. “The internet in North Korea to be like,” read one viral X postwith over 14 million views as of this writing:
In short, the video – from 2013 – is authentic, and its producers said that the venue featured in the film “was designed to convince us that [North Korea] access to the internet just like the rest of the world, which we knew was not true.” Therefore, we have rated this claim as “True.”
The clip appears in the episode “The Hermit Kingdom” (from about 15:45) of the documentary series “Vice”, released in 2013 and available on YouTube:
The video shows Vice journalists’ visit to a computer lab in North Korea, where the students’ silence and lack of activity suggest it was a staged environment rather than a real situation.
During the visit, the journalists met a student from North Korea who claims to be researching string theory in collaboration with European scientists, which is in stark contrast to the known restrictions within the country. The overall impression is that the visit was carefully orchestrated to misrepresent the reality of internet access and academic freedom in North Korea.
Here is our transcription of the question snippet from the documentary:
NARRATOR: After that they took us to a computer lab where students were using the internet. And your first thought is: OK, this is like any lab in a university at home. But then he lets you know that he is completely silent. No one is doing anything, no typing, no mouse clicking, nothing. We saw one man looking at the Google home page, but he wasn’t searching for anything. He was just staring blankly at the screen. Of course, the only person we saw there who looked like he knew how to use a computer was the only person they wanted us to meet.
NORTH KOREAN STUDENTS: Hello, nice to meet you.
Journalist: Very nice to meet you too. Sorry to disturb you while you are working.
North Korean Student: Yes, I was looking for my papers published in journals. This is related to string theory, this is done in collaboration with some foreign scientists in Europe.
Journalist: Oh wow, yeah, that’s great.
NARRATOR: Given North Korea’s reputation for complete and utter suppression of information, this stop was clearly designed to convince us that they had access to the internet just like the rest of us of the world, which we knew was not true. And that left us wondering, was anything we were seeing real? It felt like we were walking through a live “Truman Show” created just for us. Everywhere we went and everything we saw was taken to indicate the exact opposite of what we know about North Korea.
The website of People for a Successful Korean Reunification, a Seoul-based non-governmental organization that supports human rights in North Korea, provides context regarding internet use in the country, stating that “most North Koreans are not the knowledge that the Internet is global as the access. has been banned since its invention.” It continues (emphasis ours):
This is done to block the inflow of external information and to protect the stability of the system. Instead, North Korean citizens are using a state-controlled national intranet, an alternative that is heavily censored and restricted. Only a small selection of citizens have the privilege of using the global World Wide Web, such as government officials, specialized researchers and workers abroad.
The DPRK’s restrictions on global Internet and Intranet access are a serious concern for the political, social and economic freedom of North Korean citizens.
The organization released a 2021 report, titled “The New Frontier of Human Rights: Digital Rights in North Korea,” which covered the topic in depth.
“North Koreans are under extensive government control over their use of the Internet and individual digital devices, which is unimaginable to most people because in this new digital world the Internet is part of people’s daily lives ,” said the report’s introduction.
This is not the first time we have checked footage from North Korea. For example, in January 2024 we verified whether a viral video of Kim Jong Un watching a volleyball game was authentic. In April 2017, we investigated whether the missiles displayed during North Korea’s military parade were fake.
Sources:
Evan, Dan. “FACT CHECK: Did North Korea Display Fake Missiles During Military Parade?” Snopes21 Apr. 2017, https://www.snopes.com//fact-check/north-korea-fake-missiles/.
“Internet Freedom in the DPRK.” PSCORE, https://pscore.org/internet-freedom/. Accessed 13 March 2024.
PerryCook, Taija. “Is This Real Video Of Kim Jong Un Watching A Volleyball Game?” Snopes25 Jan. 2024, https://www.snopes.com//fact-check/kim-jong-un-watching-volleyball/.
The Hermit Kingdom | VICE on HBO. www.youtube.com, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrCQh1usdzE . Accessed 13 March 2024.
