Reports just coming in say that North Korea Instagram users who attempted to open the photo sharing app were confronted with a message which reads “Warning! You can’t connect to this website because it’s in blacklist site.”
According to Daily Mirror, some observers have claimed the reason behind the ban is connected with the recent hotel blaze which has never been mentioned in state-run media.
On June 11, a posh hotel called the Koryo caught fire; despite attempts to keep the inferno secret, photographs leaked out of the country and were published in newspaper across the world.
Tech support staff at Koryolink said they were not aware of any changes in policy regarding Instagram.
There has been no notice from the government or from the mobile phone service to its customers that Instagram has been blacklisted.
Officials with Instagram had no comment when contacted by The Associated Press. Instagram is owned by Facebook, which is functioning normally in Pyongyang.
