Internet users in Ethiopia began, on 11 June 2019, to report that websites and messaging tools such as WhatsApp and Telegram would not load. Local media said the cutoff was tied to the government’s effort to stop cheating in secondary-school final exams. About a week later, service was reported back. The outage was not a one-off, according to Freedom on the Net 2018, the study by Freedom House, a Washington group that tracks internet freedom.
Among 65 countries in that study, only China and Iran were found to impose tighter controls than Ethiopia. The report says the state can shut or restrict the flow of information because it controls the telecom system. Ethiopia is landlocked and reaches the global network by satellite, by a fibre line through Sudan, and by a cable through Djibouti to an undersea link. "All connections to the international internet are completely centralised via Ethio Telecom," the authors wrote, "enabling the government to cut off the internet at will." Ethio Telecom is the state provider of internet and telephone service.
Freedom House said the years after Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn resigned in February 2018 brought incremental gains: more access, less self-censorship, and the release of jailed bloggers. It also listed older practices, including blocks on social media during protests, disruption of networks, pro-government commentators, laws used to punish online speech, detention of users, and surveillance tools aimed at critics. The study noted Ethiopia’s purchase of telecom gear from China and training for officials in Beijing. Human Rights Watch, cited in the same account, pointed to prisoner releases after Abiy Ahmed became prime minister in April 2018, and to a breakdown of order that had sharply raised internal displacement. The June shutdown showed that the switch still sat in one pair of hands, even after a week in which exams were the stated reason and service eventually returned.
Sources: U.S. News & World Report