The country has closed its digital borders to prevent leaks during tests after papers were posted online by activists last year
Outbound traffic from Ethiopia was shutdown around 4pm UK time on Tuesday, according to Googleโs transparency report, which registered Ethiopian visits to the companyโs sites plummeting over the evening. By Wednesday afternoon, access still had not been restored.
Last year, activists leaked the papers for the countryโs 12th grade national exams, calling for the postponement of the papers due to a school shutdown in the regional state of Oromia. Now, the government appears to have taken the move to shut down internet access as a preventative measure.
Itโs the third time in a year that Ethiopiaโs digital borders have been slammed shut. In July 2016, the government blocked a significant amount of traffic after university entrance exams were posted online; another block followed in August of that year.
The move is a common one across many developing nations: Algeria also blocked access to social media, in June last year, in an attempt to fight cheating in school exams.
