Louis Cole is one of YouTube’s most popular travel vloggers and has amassed nearly two million subscribers to his channel.
But many on social media have taken issue with how he is using his online reach with his latest documented adventure: a tightly orchestrated, and very upbeat trip through the Hermit Kingdom.
His YouTube channel FunForLouis is filled with fun, finely edited and awe-inspiring videos but understandably the same tact feels exceedingly incongruous in North Korea.
The latest report by Human Right Watch found documented cases of extermination, murder, enslavement, torture, imprisonment, rape and forced abortion under the repressive regime of Kim Jong Un.
The “gravity, scale and nature of these violations reveal a state that does not have any parallel in the contemporary world,” the organization said.
Of course, you wouldn’t know it watching Cole’s videos where there is little mention of the country’s oppressive rule. In one, he even carries out a light hearted prank against one of his military guides.
Plastered across social media, his videos have caused controversy and garnered him a lot of criticism.
“North Korea enlists British YouTube star for propaganda videos,” wrote the Washington Times.
“Travel vlogger becomes willing vehicle for North Korean propaganda,” wrote Paper magazine.
Meanwhile a Vanity Fair labelled the trip “especially strange” and the resulting videos as “highly suspicious”.
While he hasn’t responded to the criticism, Cole said he was trying to “focus on the positive things” in North Korea in order to “combat the purely negative image we see in the media.”
“I advise you to do your own research on the DPRK. These videos are from one perspective of what we are being shown and experience whilst here,” he wrote on his YouTube page.
But many on social media have already made up their own mind.
@funforlouis no….. It's blatant propaganda. How shameful can you be.
— G-DRAGON UPDATES (@jiyongal) August 16, 2016
.@funforlouis It's ludicrous that you think you were seeing anything true. No barriers were broken. Congrats on contributing to propaganda.
— Lolo (@minnepaulitan) August 16, 2016
@funforlouis @YouTube terrible you would allow to be used by such evil people to spread propaganda. Enjoy your "holiday". Disgusting
— Andrew Baker75 (@Andrew_B_75) August 16, 2016
@funforlouis Why haven't you responded to the criticism. It's not acceptable say you just want to see the positive side of NK, its naive.
— Jo Smith (@JJCS777) August 17, 2016
.@funforlouis by “life of the locals” you mean all the poor and those suffering from malnutrition at the hands of the govt you drove past?
— Matt Haze (@MattHaze) August 14, 2016
@funforlouis you know they have death camps where people are beaten and starved en masse, surely
— Sam Sweetmilk (@SamSweetmilk) August 16, 2016
@funforlouis #propaganda tool of the #DPRK pic.twitter.com/xNYCPVcxZc
— Zeatu Barbarossa (@ZEATU) August 16, 2016
[Photo Credit: Flickr/Gage Skidmore]
This article was originally published on news.com.au.
