Past

National shutdown

Government of Iraq is imposing daily shutdowns during second stage of grade 9 school exams on 21 August 2023. The 4 hour shutdowns of access to the Internet affects everyone in Iraq, except Kurdistan region which had its own shutdowns as reported here. The local government belief that this will reduce cheating during high school exams. 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.  

  • Total Duration 4 hours

Flag of Iraq Iraq

Population
45,074,049

Freedom House rates Internet freedom as Partly Free

View full country profile for Iraq

Local impact

Government of Iraq is imposing daily shutdowns during second stage of grade 9 school exams on 21 August 2023. The 4 hour shutdowns of access to the Internet affects everyone in Iraq, except Kurdistan region which had its own shutdowns as reported here. The local government belief that this will reduce cheating during high school exams. 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.  

Other supporting information

Government of Iraq is imposing daily shutdowns during second stage of grade 9 school exams. The 4 hour shutdowns of access to the Internet affects everyone in Iraq, except Kurdistan region which had its own shutdowns as reported here. The local government belief that this will reduce cheating during high school exams. The shutdown is visible on IODA graphs, Cloudflare Radar, and Google Transparency Report, as detailed in the graphs below.

Exam Schedule

Translated

Day Exam
21 August 2023 Islamic Studies and Arabic Language
22 August 2023 English Language
23 August 2023 Mathematics
24 August 2023 Social Sciences
26 August 2023 Human and Health
27 August 2023 Chemistry
28 August 2023 Physics
29 August 2023 French/Kurdish/Turkmen Languages

Google Transparency Report

Product traffic in Iraq