Korea Communications Standards Commission censors Women on Web’s websites for the 4th time
Authored by Women on Web
By censoring Women on Web's abortion.kr website, the KCSC is again limiting access to abortion pills and information about safe abortion.
Women on Web (WoW) is known to be the first international online telemedicine abortion service. Over its 20 years of history, WoW has supported over 650,000 individuals with information and facilitated abortion access for over 130,000 people beyond restrictive laws and practices. In South Korea alone, Women on Web has supported thousands of women and pregnant people to safely self-manage their abortions.
Despite the strong body of scientific evidence proving that abortion with pills is a safe, effective, and common way to end a pregnancy, since 2019, KCSC has been censoring several WoW websites. These rulings ignore science and block people’s access to safe, reliable, and timely abortion care. They also violate people’s right to information and freedom of expression by restricting access to vital health information disseminated by Women on Web.
Women on Web’s social media campaign bringing awareness to abortion access and censorship. Learn more and share here.
Despite abortion being decriminalized in 2019 in South Korea, the ongoing demand for Women on Web’s support and services suggests that the South Korean government has failed to provide affordable, timely, and high-quality abortion services.
In response to the censorship of Korean ISPs DNS servers, for the past 6 years, WoW has been creating mirror websites. These mirror sites safeguard uninterrupted access to Korean-language abortion information and care.
The mirror websites started as a secretive censorship circumvention strategy. These sites attracted traffic because of clever SEO strategies, and the association to Women on Web was intentionally kept blurry to keep a low profile. But with the recent launch of the fifth mirror site (www.women-on-web.krorg), the strategy has shifted: we’re going public. There is no time for keyword search engine optimization. People need to know that their rights are being violated and that the website is still accessible.
The Internet is a critical resource for people seeking sexual and reproductive health information and services. One of the main advantages of WoW’s online service is its ability to reach socially, culturally, and legally marginalized individuals. Restricting access to websites and resources that facilitate safe abortion access is not going to stop abortions from happening. Blocking these websites doesn’t stop abortions—it just creates an information vacuum, filled with mis and disinformation that delays access to care and puts lives at risk.
Medical abortion medications (“the abortion pill”) are widely used, well-studied, and trusted by millions of people around the world every year. They are revolutionary and meet people’s needs for privacy, confidentiality and convenience in a deeply personal moment. Everyone deserves access to this essential health care.
The fight for abortion rights is increasingly happening in online spaces, and website censorship is a powerful strategy to stop information sharing and access to online abortion services. Women on Web and our partners at Open Net, has been litigating against the blocking of the websites since 2019, and unfortunately, in 2024, we lost our latest appeal to restore access to the websites.
Censorship may delay us, but it cannot stop the resilience and creativity of our movement or the determination of people who will find ways to access abortion pills, no matter what.
If Women on Web is censored in your country (or any other essential resource you wish to access) try these strategies to circumvent the censorship:
Use our anti-censorship Blogs like women-on-web.kr (you can find them in Wikipedia or via our social media accounts)
Alternatively, our email address info@womenonweb.org will always help you to get our support
Try the TOR Browser for anonymity and censorship resistance.
Use a Virtual Private Network (VPN) to connect to womenonweb.org
Consider changing your DNS settings (search for Cloudflare DNS or Quad9). Note: DNS providers can see your browsing activity.