Social media isn’t blocked in South Korea, but its regulator blocks around 200,000 web pages a year, mostly for obscenity, gambling or illegal medicine sales, plus content praising North Korea.
Every day we open 67 of the world’s biggest sites and apps from home internet connections in South Korea, and record what’s blocked, since when and how.
0 of 67 testedsites and apps with a confirmed block in South Korea
67 of 67 results confirmed in the last 48 hours.
Tests are requested on KT and SK Broadband home connections.
Online content is policed by the Korea Communications Standards Commission (KCSC), which orders internet providers to block sites and pages and platforms to remove posts. Firms that ignore its orders face up to two years in prison or a fine of up to 20 million won, and whole sites can be blocked over part of their content. The KCSC publishes no list of blocked sites, but said 220,403 sites or pages were blocked in 2023.
Most blocks target prostitution and obscenity, illegal gambling and illegal food and medicine sales. Material that praises North Korea is illegal under Article 7 of the 1948 National Security Act and can be blocked too, nearly always at police request. Since February 2019 providers have also filtered encrypted HTTPS connections by reading the unencrypted server name, and blocked pages show a warning bearing the seals of the KCSC and the national police.
Freedom House says the KCSC has increasingly blocked content critical of the president, the first lady or the government, including, in January 2024, 37 videos from a reporter’s YouTube channel, which it ordered blocked on national security grounds. A 2021 order also blocked Women on Web, a site with contraception and abortion information, and a court upheld it in May 2024.
Freedom House lists no blocked social media platforms, and some services have gone for other reasons. Twitch closed its Korean business on 27 February 2024, saying network fees there were ten times those of most countries, and the data protection authority blocked downloads of DeepSeek in February 2025 until it changed its privacy practices. President Yoon’s December 2024 martial law decree put news sites under military control until it was lifted the next day.
VPNs in South Korea
Freedom House says South Korea’s government doesn’t restrict encryption, and the KCSC’s blocking orders cover websites and posts.
Key dates
The data protection authority blocks downloads of the DeepSeek app over privacy; it becomes available again two months later.
President Yoon’s martial law decree outlaws “fake news” and puts media outlets, news sites included, under military control; it’s lifted the next day.
A court upholds a 2021 order blocking Women on Web, a site with contraception and abortion information.
Twitch shuts down its business in South Korea, its own decision, citing network fees ten times those in most other countries.
The KCSC cites national security to order providers to block 37 videos from a reporter’s YouTube channel.
Internet providers start filtering encrypted HTTPS connections by the server name they reveal, so sites on the KCSC’s list stay blocked.
Get past a block
Blocked in South Korea?
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History
Changes in South Korea
No confirmed changes since monitoring began on 29 Sep 2026. When a block appears or lifts, and a re-check on several machines agrees, it shows up here.
Method
How we test
Test machines on KT and SK Broadband home connections open each site’s homepage every day.
A failure counts only when it happens twice on the same network, while the site opens from other countries.
A change is published only after re-checks a few hours later and again the next day, on several machines per provider, confirm it. It’s dated from the first sighting.
Test machines caught getting around blocks, through a VPN or a filter-dodging tool, are set aside.
We test websites, mostly over home broadband. Apps, calls and mobile networks can behave differently.
Because of costs, not censorship. Twitch closed its Korean business on 27 February 2024; its chief executive said running it there was prohibitively expensive, with network fees ten times those of most other countries, even after it capped video quality at 720p.
Are North Korean Websites Blocked in South Korea?
They can be. Content that praises, promotes or glorifies North Korea is illegal under Article 7 of the National Security Act and can be blocked or deleted, almost always at police request: Freedom House counted 1,764 such items between January and August 2018.
Is DeepSeek Banned in South Korea?
Not outright. In February 2025 South Korea’s data protection authority blocked downloads of the DeepSeek app over its privacy practices, and the app became available again two months later, after DeepSeek changed them.
