The regime’s control hinges on maintaining a monopoly on information and ideas inside the country. Escalating crackdowns against foreign media consumption only underscores how critical it can be to disrupting their control. As North Korean people learn about the outside world, it builds their resilience to the regime’s propaganda, empowers them to scrutinize the government, and increases their aspirations for progress.
It may start with a few individuals quietly questioning the system. But as that number grows, awareness spreads, attitudes shift, and pressure builds on the regime.
We partner with engineers and North Korean defectors to build lightweight, secure, high-impact programs tailored to North Korean users, with a focus on software that has the potential to be copied and spread quickly.
We integrate digital security and anti-surveillance measures into our products to empower North Koreans to manage their own digital security and keep themselves safe from investigation, torture, and potentially execution.
We collaborate with trusted partners for distribution across the border into North Korea, and seed our technologies and content to circulate within existing information-sharing networks.
We work with North Korean defectors to strategically curate and create content that will resonate with North Korean audiences, sharing stories of resettled North Korean refugees living abroad and conveying key messages of basic freedoms and rights.
Sharing information publicly means we are also sharing it with the North Korean regime. With the most sensitive details, lives could be put at risk. To ensure operational security and protect the safety of our partners and end users, we limit what we share publicly about our Information Access Programs.
North Korean refugees consistently identify access to outside information as one of the most important drivers of change inside the country. Throughout development, we do extensive pre-testing of our technology and content with resettled North Koreans, who are the best possible proxies for our target audiences. Here’s some of the feedback we’ve received:
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If I were in North Korea, I would stay up all night to view this content.
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This will be very powerful for changing North Korean people’s perceptions and mentality because there are so many different kinds of information without a particular agenda or message. If you try to persuade people [with a particular agenda] they will reject it. This can create more political change because it is not political itself.
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This will have a major impact on the people of North Korea [...] Right now, because of the new law punishing so-called ‘non-socialist behavior,’ people’s morale is very low. But if this program spreads inside North Korea, it will help people regain confidence.
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This would be incredibly useful to have. It seems like a program that’s really needed in North Korea. If this had existed when I was there, I think I would have used it. It could play a valuable role in meeting the needs of people in North Korea.
