May 14, 2026

North Korea Bans Instagram

By Farouk Mohammed

This undated picture released from North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on April 27, 2014 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un attending an enlarged meeting of the Central Military Commission (CMC) of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) at undisclosed place in North Korea.  AFP PHOTO / KCNA via KNS    REPUBLIC OF KOREA OUT THIS PICTURE WAS MADE AVAILABLE BY A THIRD PARTY. AFP CAN NOT INDEPENDENTLY VERIFY THE AUTHENTICITY, LOCATION, DATE AND CONTENT OF THIS IMAGE. THIS PHOTO IS DISTRIBUTED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED BY AFP. ---EDITORS NOTE--- RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE - MANDATORY CREDIT "AFP PHOTO / KCNA VIA KNS" - NO MARKETING NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS - DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTSKNS/AFP/Getty Images

North Korea has taken secrecy a step further by blacklisting Instagram,in a bid to stop embarrassing news leaking out of the country.
Instagram users who attempted to open the photo sharing app were confronted with a message which reads

“Warning! You can’t connect to this website because it’s in blacklist site.”

According to Daily Mirror, some observers have claimed the reason behind the ban is not unconnected with the recent hotel blaze which has never been mentioned in state-run media.On June 11, a posh hotel called the Koryo caught fire.Despite attempts to keep the inferno secret, photographs leaked out of the country and were published in newspaper across the world.

A-fire-burns-at-the-Koryo-Hotel-in-Pyongyang

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