Instagram Blocked in North Korea After Photos of Hotel Fire Posted
SEOUL, June 23 (UPI) — Photo-sharing app Instagram has been blocked in North Korea after snapshots of a Pyongyang hotel fire were posted to social media.
Instagram users in North Korea said their accounts were inaccessible and that a message indicated the application was blacklisted, Sky News reported.
The notice that has appeared intermittently said Instagram contains harmful content.
It was unclear whether the message was from Koryolink, North Korea’s Internet provider, or from another source.
The message appeared on both mobile phones and computers using LAN cables, according to Fortune.
“Warning! You can’t connect to this website because it’s in blacklist site,” the English version read.
The Instagram block comes after reports of a hotel fire in Pyongyang were relayed across informal social media channels. Foreign eyewitnesses who recorded the fire on cameras or on video were arrested on June 11.
The leaked photos showed images of Koryo hotel in flames but North Korean authorities denied the accident was serious.
Foreigners jumped at the chance of transmitting images of the fire North Korea did not want the world to see.
Internet to the outside world is not available for most North Koreans, but foreigners have been able to use 3G on their mobile phones since 2013.
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