5 ms·

Who are North Korea’s 13 Twitter friends?

49 points by nbsymr 16y ago

Who are the 13 Twitter users that North Korea has chosen to follow using their official uriminzok Twitter account?

nhebb 16y ago
I wonder if Alec Baldwin and the other members of the Film Actors Guild feel slighted at being passed over?
tinybit 16y ago
Would be funny to see all the world politicians befriend each other on social networks - world peace!?
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
- joshu 16y ago
  All the museums are friends! http://twitter.com/smithsonian http://twitter.com/smithsonian
  - Tichy 16y ago
    And all the cats: http://twitter.com/Mulder_Cat http://twitter.com/Mulder_Cat (random cat from search results). I found it really funny when I discovered those animal subsets of Twitter.
- praptak 16y ago
  After the huge success that was force joining of groups ( http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1767368 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1767368 ), Facebook could introduce force-friending. Applied to: small countries neighboring large and powerful ones, citizens of autocratic states (Big Brother IS your friend!)
buddydvd 16y ago
If I recall correctly, authorizing TwitPic makes you automatically follow @TwitPic and @noaheverett.
- StavrosK 16y ago
  This is interesting. How do people feel about this forced following?
fizx 16y ago
Note that it's not a verified account.
- saurik 16y ago
  (Twitter no longer does new verified accounts: they consider that "beta" program "closed".)
- nbsymr 16y ago
  The account's authenticity is confirmed by the BBC - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11007825 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11007825
  - martey 16y ago
    Your linked article is not really a "confirmation": the BBC talked to a professor from Tufts University who says that the government is behind the account. Alternatively, Forbes talked to Alejandro Cao de Benos (a Spaniard who runs the "Korean Friendship Association": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alejandro_Cao_de_Benos_de_Les_y_P%C3%A9rez http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alejandro_Cao_de_Benos_de_Les_y... ), who claimed that the government has nothing to do with it: http://blogs.forbes.com/taylorbuley/2010/08/23/north-korea-tells-forbes-that-its-not-using-twitter-facebook-or-youtube/ http://blogs.forbes.com/taylorbuley/2010/08/23/north-korea-t... I think the most that we can say is that the evidence is inconclusive.
aberkowitz 16y ago
First CNN Turns twitter into national news, now we try and make Twitter international news? This article says nothing useful about North Korea except that they like people with similar interests (surprise).
rms 16y ago
The last North Korean Twitter account to get social media attention was fake, why wouldn't this one be? They don't have the internet in North Korea.
CitizenKane 16y ago
While is hasn't been verified, it has certainly fallen afoul of South Korean censors. I'm currently staying in Korea and I'm greeted with this http://dl.dropbox.com/u/295167/warning.png http://dl.dropbox.com/u/295167/warning.png I'd say there is a decent chance that this is real.

49 points by nbsymr 16y ago

Who are the 13 Twitter users that North Korea has chosen to follow using their official uriminzok Twitter account?

nhebb 16y ago

I wonder if Alec Baldwin and the other members of the Film Actors Guild feel slighted at being passed over?

tinybit 16y ago

Would be funny to see all the world politicians befriend each other on social networks - world peace!?

deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
joshu 16y ago
All the museums are friends! http://twitter.com/smithsonian http://twitter.com/smithsonian
- Tichy 16y ago
  And all the cats: http://twitter.com/Mulder_Cat http://twitter.com/Mulder_Cat (random cat from search results). I found it really funny when I discovered those animal subsets of Twitter.
praptak 16y ago
After the huge success that was force joining of groups ( http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1767368 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1767368 ), Facebook could introduce force-friending. Applied to: small countries neighboring large and powerful ones, citizens of autocratic states (Big Brother IS your friend!)

buddydvd 16y ago

If I recall correctly, authorizing TwitPic makes you automatically follow @TwitPic and @noaheverett.

StavrosK 16y ago
This is interesting. How do people feel about this forced following?

fizx 16y ago

Note that it's not a verified account.

saurik 16y ago
(Twitter no longer does new verified accounts: they consider that "beta" program "closed".)
nbsymr 16y ago
The account's authenticity is confirmed by the BBC - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11007825 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11007825
- martey 16y ago
  Your linked article is not really a "confirmation": the BBC talked to a professor from Tufts University who says that the government is behind the account. Alternatively, Forbes talked to Alejandro Cao de Benos (a Spaniard who runs the "Korean Friendship Association": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alejandro_Cao_de_Benos_de_Les_y_P%C3%A9rez http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alejandro_Cao_de_Benos_de_Les_y... ), who claimed that the government has nothing to do with it: http://blogs.forbes.com/taylorbuley/2010/08/23/north-korea-tells-forbes-that-its-not-using-twitter-facebook-or-youtube/ http://blogs.forbes.com/taylorbuley/2010/08/23/north-korea-t... I think the most that we can say is that the evidence is inconclusive.

aberkowitz 16y ago

First CNN Turns twitter into national news, now we try and make Twitter international news? This article says nothing useful about North Korea except that they like people with similar interests (surprise).

rms 16y ago

The last North Korean Twitter account to get social media attention was fake, why wouldn't this one be? They don't have the internet in North Korea.

CitizenKane 16y ago

While is hasn't been verified, it has certainly fallen afoul of South Korean censors. I'm currently staying in Korea and I'm greeted with this http://dl.dropbox.com/u/295167/warning.png http://dl.dropbox.com/u/295167/warning.png I'd say there is a decent chance that this is real.