What do you do with an old flash drive? You probably just throw it in a drawer somewhere, where it will gather dust until you have a need for portable storage. That, or you just toss it. Who needs a measly 1GB drive when cheap, high-capacity drives abound?
We have an alternative solution: donate them so they may be used to teach North Koreans the ways of the modern world. Wait, what?
Flash Drives for Freedom is a joint collaboration between the Human Rights Foundation and Forum 280, which are collecting flash drives for North Korean refugee-led organizations, which load them up with content that's not available in the region—films and TV shows—and smuggle them into the country.
As Wired notes, the drives are smuggled through all sorts of inventive ways, which has included floating them over the borders tied to balloons. The hope is that having access to this media will help dispel the ideologies that the North Korean government enforces as fact.
"Each year, these groups collectively smuggle fewer than 10,000 flash drives. They could send many more, but are limited by the fact that they have to purchase the drives on the internet at retail cost. By gifting them drives, Flash drives for Freedom allows them to focus in 2016 on programs and future work rather than spend time and money on purchasing equipment," reads a description on Flash Drives for Freedom's website.
"In the world's most closed society, flash drives are valuable tools of education and discovery. In a society without Internet, with total government censorship, and with no independent media, North Koreans rely on these little pieces of plastic. Filled with films, books, and explainers, they are windows to the outside world," reads Flash Drives for Freedom's website.
The organization will take any flash drive you have to send. Though you probably want to format it yourself so any critical information is deleted, Flash Drives for Freedom will also erase the drives using "security-expert advised techniques." You can also donate money if you'd like the organization to just go buy flash drives in bulk, but it's likely more useful if you help collect up drives you and your friends aren't using. Flash drives of any type, manufacturer, or size are fair game.
"Our North Korean partners determine what goes on the drives. Content ranges from South Korean soap operas to Hollywood films to Korean-language versions of Wikipedia to interviews with North Korean defectors," reads Flash Drives for Freedom's website.
Source: pcmag.com
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