Iran, 2011. A corrupt election drives many Iranians to the streets in protest. They use social media to introduce the world to their struggle, a struggle that includes police brutality and other injustices. The world saw what the Iranian people really went through, not just what the Ayatollah and Ahmadinejad wanted us to hear. Can that happen to North Korea?
Not in it’s present state. I have it by good authority the people there are so isolated most have never even heard of You Tube, Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. They’ve never typed on a desktop, carried a laptop or played Angry Birds on a smartphone. They’ve never sent an email or seen a power point presentation. Ten years ago, it was a capital offense to even carry a cell phone!? However, things are slowly changing.?Now, thanks to their kind hearted gov’t (note the sarcastic tone) one million North Koreans have mobile phones. And some even have Internet access. So some ingredients are being put in place, ingredients to connect them to the outside world.
But dictators and regimes know what power 21st century technology has, and they’re bent on getting a hold of it before their opposition does. Don’t expect them to let?the majority have these technological necessities. What’s worse? They’re training their higher ups to suppress?and stop democratic urges. Instead of spending money on food, education, health care?and infrastructure for their people, they’re spending it to build technology to spy on their people, to tighten the leash on them.?They can do this through facial recognition systems, voice scans, DNA,?and the?kinds of things once only seen in James Bond movies or spy TV shows. Even in?American cities like Chicago, they’re trying to put a surveillance camera on every corner in the city. In some parts of England, the camera will talk to you if you so much as jaywalk or litter! I always feel like somebody’s watching me! That’s because they are.
I am not here to knock technology. I’m so thankful for the advances that have been made just in my lifetime. I’m saying they can be used for good and evil, depending on whose control it’s in. The Internet has done far more good than harm. You can best believe while dictators and aristocrats are working hard maintain power, freedom fighters are working hard to win democracy. Social media gives these people more power than they’ve ever had before. Remember what TV did for the Civil Rights Movement back in the 1960s? Where will you be when Pyongyang has it’s online?revolution?