Ethiopia: Internet shutdown to “prevent high school exam leaks”

ESAT News (May 31, 2017)

Ethiopian authorities cut off the internet all across the nation due to what people close to regime officials said was to “prevent the leaking of a national high school examination.”

Google Transparency Report also showed that the internet was down about 11:30 GMT Tuesday in Ethiopia. There were reports that some connection was back in some parts on Wednesday but people reached by ESAT by phone say they have no connection.

Quartz Africa quoted Julie Owono, the executive director of the advocacy group Internet Sans Frontières as saying that the latest shutdown was “unnecessary” and violated the digital rights of Ethiopians.

It is not the first time that the regime switched off the Internet. Last year, the national exam was leaked over social media by activists forcing authorities to reschedule the tests and temporarily shutdown social media platforms. Internet and phone were also cut off at the height of anti-government protests in the Oromo and Amhara regions in 2015/2016.

Internet penetration is one of the lowest in Ethiopia and even the limited connection would be switched off whenever authorities deemed it necessary.

Political comments on social media could risk getting locked up. A journalist, Getachew Shiferaw and young politician Yonatan Tesfaye, got 18 months and six year in jail respectively.

There were no official statements from authorities regarding the shutdown at the time of this post.