Government blocks access to Twitter, Facebook and YouTube

Last week, North Korea began to block access to Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and other websites in the country.

According a report by AP, which has a bureau in North Korean capital Pyongyang, the government named YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Voice of America, a number of South Korean websites, porn and gambling websites on a list of Internet sites that will be blocked “for a certain period of time.”

The report further reveals that the announcement reportedly also stated that anyone trying to access the sites in an “improper” way or distribute “anti-republic data” would be punished, although it did not specify how.

READ: East Asian nation bans Instagram

Normally, Internet access is generally reserved for government officials or other high-level positions - even though the country has a reported 2 million mobile phone users - and this is a step further to shutting down the country and restrict access to information.

Right now, Instagram is still accessible in North Korea but it could just be temporary. Twitter, Facebook and Google are yet to comment on the situation so far.