Harry Fletcher
Mar 01, 2023
content.jwplatform.com
TikTok is causing all kinds of controversy across the US at the moment, but some countries are looking to use the platform to their advantage.
A new account is seeing North Korea push propaganda videos on TikTok under the name “northkoreanlife”.
The account features short videos claiming to showcase “living in the beautiful DPRK” – the country which is run by Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un as a totalitarian dictatorship.
Some of the clips have racked up more than 2.7million views since it began posting on February 9. They all attempt to show the country in a positive light and hit back at what the “western media” portray about the regime.
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The videos feature captions such as “the North Korea western media doesn’t show you” and “nearly everybody in North Korea has an umbrella”.
Another shows a child holding a flag with the caption: “Young boy prideful of his motherland.”
@northkoreanlife Beautiful mountains of the DPRK 😄 #fyp #foryou #foryoupage #xyzbca #korea
One more says: “Many people think that North Korea has no cars, in reality we have many cars such as Audi, Mercedes, Hyundai and many more.”
Other clips show mundane street scenes, with the account receiving more than 200,000 followers and managing more than 3.6million likes.
@northkoreanlife Very sleepy 😴💤 #fyp #foryou #foryoupage #viral
The news comes as other countries look to distance themselves from the platform.
The White House recently gave federal agencies a 30-day deadline to remove TikTok from their government-issued devices.
This move has been described as a "critical step forward in addressing the risks presented by the app to sensitive government data," by the OMB amid security concerns about how US user data could be obtained by the Chinese government.
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