Featured Image Credit: Mrwhosetheboss/YouTube
Topics: North Korea, YouTube, Social Media, News, Technology, Phones
Niamh Shackleton
Topics: North Korea, YouTube, Social Media, News, Technology, Phones
A YouTuber managed to get his hands on two North Korean smartphones and what he found on them was undeniably shocking.
Mrwhosetheboss boasts nearly 22 million subscribers on YouTube, and a lot of them are now fearing for his safety following the release of one of his newest videos.
Earlier this week, the YouTube star — real name Arun Maini — posted a video titled 'Testing North Korea's illegal smartphones' where he looked at two different smartphones from the notoriously private country.
In the video, Arun looks at a Hayyang 701 and the Samtaesung 8, which is said to be North Korea's alternative to the Samsung Galaxy.
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Arun proceeded to try search for things on the two pieces of tech but quickly discovered just how how much censorship there is on North Korea cellphones.
For example he tried to search South Korea on the Hayyang phone and it was autocorrected to read 'puppet state'.
Arun said that this shows 'just how committed North Korea's government is [in] sustaining its narrative that South Korea is the inferior, less individual country that just blindly follows whatever the US asks them to'.
Then Arun tries to connect to WiFi on the two phones. On the Hayyang there's a WiFi button on it but nothing happens when you press it; meanwhile on the Samtaesung there's no WiFi button whatsoever.
Instead, all the two phones can connect to is an Intranet.
"This still doesn't get you onto the internet," he explained. "There's actually no way for a North Korean citizen to do that."
Arun said that the Intranet simply gets you access to 'government approved TV, news, and propaganda apps'.
To get access to said Intranet, called Mirae, you have to include a lot of details about yourself, including your government ID.
In light of the YouTuber lifting the lid on the censorship North Koreans face people have expressed concerns for his safety.
"Bro is now the top of the most wanted list of North Korea," one person said.
Another wrote: "Arun’s next video gonna be titled: 'So… I moved to an undisclosed bunker'."
"If he stops uploading we all know the reason," echoed another YouTube viewer.
"Ok so if he mysteriously disappears we now know why," agreed a fourth.
Somebody else suggested that Arun was 'risking his life for this content'.
Meanwhile dozens of others spoke about how 'absurd' the North Korea cellphones were and how much the country controls its citizens.