Internet Shutdowns

Iraq authorities ordered Internet services to be suspended again on the morning of  26 June 2024, between 6:00 and 8:00 local time (+3 UTC). The shutdown follows an announcement by Iraq's Ministry of Communication on 7 June 2024 stating that they will enact the Ministry of Education's request to order Internet shutdowns on exam days as part of its efforts to prevent cheating. In an open letter to the Prime Minister of Iraq, the #KeepItOn coalition, which the Internet Society is a member, recently urged authorities to abstain from implementing Internet shutdowns during exams. The letter notes the lack of evidence demonstrating their impact on exam cheating, the economic cost of shutdowns on the country, and their violation of human rights. Iraq ordered more than 40 Internet shutdowns last year and 15 this year, most of which were related to exams.

Although the Communications Authority of Kenya issued a statement that they do not intend to shutdown access to the Internet in reaction to expected protests the next day against the government’s plan to increase taxes, an outage was detected. We wrote in details about this incident in this blog post.

Iraq authorities ordered Internet services to be suspended again on the morning of  24 June 2024, between 6:00 and 8:00 local time (+3 UTC). The shutdown follows an announcement by Iraq's Ministry of Communication on 7 June 2024 stating that they will enact the Ministry of Education's request to order Internet shutdowns on exam days as part of its efforts to prevent cheating. In an open letter to the Prime Minister of Iraq, the #KeepItOn coalition, which the Internet Society is a member, recently urged authorities to abstain from implementing Internet shutdowns during exams. The letter notes the lack of evidence demonstrating their impact on exam cheating, the economic cost of shutdowns on the country, and their violation of human rights. Iraq ordered more than 40 Internet shutdowns last year and 14 this year, most of which were related to exams.

Iraq authorities ordered Internet services to be suspended again on the morning of  23 June 2024, between 6:00 and 8:00 local time (+3 UTC). The shutdown follows an announcement by Iraq's Ministry of Communication on 7 June 2024 stating that they will enact the Ministry of Education's request to order Internet shutdowns on exam days as part of its efforts to prevent cheating. In an open letter to the Prime Minister of Iraq, the #KeepItOn coalition, which the Internet Society is a member, recently urged authorities to abstain from implementing Internet shutdowns during exams. The letter notes the lack of evidence demonstrating their impact on exam cheating, the economic cost of shutdowns on the country, and their violation of human rights. Iraq ordered more than 40 Internet shutdowns last year and 14 this year, most of which were related to exams.

Local authorities ordered Internet services to be suspended for two days in the Balasore municipality of Odisha starting on Tuesday, 18 June, as part of an imposed curfew following community violence. Authorities explained the order was given to "prevent the circulation of inflammatory and motivated messages on social media and disturb the public order in Balasore municipality areas; the prohibition on social media usage has been enforced." According to reports, Internet services were partially restored on leased lines at 10 a.m. on Thursday, 20 June, but not mobile data services. All Internet services were restored by 24 June.

For a fifth - and presumably final - day, the Algerian government is shutting down the Internet for the entire country during school exams, following the pattern of the last few days. Data from Cloudflare Radar and IODA show that Algeria appears to be following a similar pattern to last year, with a longer outage in the morning and then a second outage in the afternoon. As we noted in our post about exam-related shutdowns in 2024, these Baccalaureate exams go from 9-13 June 2024. We have seen daily shutdowns on each of the days, and today is supposed to be the final day. In analyzing the data, it appears that the Algerian government is engaging in content blocking whereby the actual Internet connections remain active, but the Internet service providers are ordered to block certain sites, including social media networks and messaging sites. As we have repeatedly written about here on Pulse, Internet shutdowns cause great harm to a country’s economy and society and are in our opinion not the appropriate mechanism to cope with potential exam cheating  

Iraq authorities ordered Internet services to be suspended again on the morning of  13 June 2024, between 6:00 and 8:00 local time (+3 UTC). The shutdown follows an announcement by Iraq's Ministry of Communication on 19 May 2024 stating that they will enact the Ministry of Education's request to order Internet shutdowns on exam days in May and June as part of its efforts to prevent cheating. In an open letter to the Prime Minister of Iraq, the #KeepItOn coalition, which the Internet Society is a member, recently urged authorities to abstain from implementing Internet shutdowns during exams. The letter notes the lack of evidence demonstrating their impact on exam cheating, the economic cost of shutdowns on the country, and their violation of human rights. Iraq ordered more than 40 Internet shutdowns last year, most of which were related to exams.

At the request of the Syrian Ministry of Education, the Internet in Syria was suspended on the morning of 13 June 2024, between 6:00 and 10:00 local time (+3 UTC) ahead of  the last day of high school exams. As per Syrian Telecom. Along with this should event, mobile telecommunication is also scheduled t be shut off between 8:00 and 9:00 local time (+3 UTC). The #KeepItOn coalition, which the Internet Society is a member, recently urged Syrian and other authorities to abstain from implementing Internet shutdowns during exams, noting the lack of evidence demonstrating their impact on exam cheating, the economic cost of shutdowns on countries, and their violation of human rights. Syria ordered 11 Internet shutdowns in 2023, all related to exams.

For a fourth day, the Algerian government is shutting down the Internet for the entire country during school exams, following the pattern of the last few days. Data from Cloudflare Radar and IODA show that Algeria appears to be following a similar pattern to last year, with a longer outage in the morning and then a second outage in the afternoon. As we noted in our post about exam-related shutdowns in 2024, these Baccalaureate exams go from 9-13 June 2024. We expect to see daily shutdowns on these days. In analyzing the data, it appears that the Algerian government is engaging in content blocking whereby the actual Internet connections remain active, but the Internet service providers are ordered to block certain sites, including social media networks and messaging sites. As we have repeatedly written about here on Pulse, Internet shutdowns cause great harm to a country’s economy and society and are in our opinion not the appropriate mechanism to cope with potential exam cheating  

At the request of the Syrian Ministry of Education, the Internet in Syria was suspended on the morning of 12 June 2024, between 6:00 and 9:00 local time (+3 UTC) ahead of  a day of high school exams. According to Syrian Telecom, these shutdowns will occur daily through 13 June. The #KeepItOn coalition, which the Internet Society is a member, recently urged Syrian and other authorities to abstain from implementing Internet shutdowns during exams, noting the lack of evidence demonstrating their impact on exam cheating, the economic cost of shutdowns on countries, and their violation of human rights. Syria ordered 11 Internet shutdowns in 2023, all related to exams.