Abstract
Until all North Koreans have free speech online, we cannot claim to have a world wide web, says Index blogging competition winner and Warwick University student
The world wide web is not worldwide. This is the biggest challenge facing freedom of expression in the world.
You see something. You Tweet about it. You post a status on Facebook. You share. You express. While it may not always be obvious at the time, you are flexing your right to freedom of expression. It is an everyday thing that can be found in your pocket or on your desk. Internet access is your tool for commenting on society. I am uploading this to Index right now using the internet.
What little internet access North Koreans do have is used to make their world smaller
It was given to “us” for free. However, the “you” and “us” are subjective. I am speaking about people in Britain, and other countries where web access is widely available. This subjectivity undermines the freedom of expression embodied in the premise of a “world wide” web. Having open internet access is a privilege that many people – including me – often take for granted.
A trending hashtag has the ability to connect people across the world instantaneously, but that does not mean it will be seen by everyone in every country. North Korea is an extreme and yet important example. Technically this is a country where citizens have access to the internet. However, to say it is a country with internet implies full access, not simply access that is limited to certain members of society and heavily censored by the government.
The country recently acquired its own wireless 3G network. But it is a 3G network unlike any other: the two million North Korean citizens who now use this service are unable to access the internet. The official Democratic Republic of Korea twitter account @uriminzokkir cannot even be accessed. A shame for any North Korean wishing to see the same message its government relays daily, regurgitated through a medium designed to expand the world. What little internet access North Koreans do have is used instead to make their world smaller.
A country that is secluded from the internet is secluded from the world. The North Korean government has been able to hold its grasp by limiting access to a world outside the one they have created. An outside world is not a possibility without a world wide web to present it. This access needs to be in the hands and homes of North Koreans because, at the moment, it is an understandably difficult external world to visualise.
On 24 February 2013, journalist Jean H Lee tweeted, “Hello world from comms center in #Pyongyang”. It may only be one tweet floating around the twittersphere that day but it is believed to be the first one sent using the country’s mobile 3G service. It is also probably one of the last. At one time, those arriving in the country were offered internet access, a privilege denied to North Korean citizens, but even this access has reportedly now been stopped.
I want to see a tweet, not from a journalist, but from a North Korean, expressing views that are not the government’s but their own. I want my blog post to be easily accessible in North Korea. The world wide web has turned freedom of expression into a truly global thing, but there is still room for it to grow.