Past

National shutdown

At the request of the Syrian Ministry of Education, the Internet in Syria was suspended on the morning of 3 June 2024, between 6:00 and 8:30 local time (+3 UTC) ahead of the second day of high school exams. According to Syrian Telecom, these shutdowns will occur daily through 13 June. This year, the Internet shutdown schedule is accompanied by a mobile telecommunication shutdown schedule. For this day, the mobile telecommunications were not shut off. 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.

  • Total Duration 2 hours

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Population
23,594,623

Freedom House rates Internet freedom as Not Free

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Local impact

At the request of the Syrian Ministry of Education, the Internet in Syria was suspended on the morning of 3 June 2024, between 6:00 and 8:30 local time (+3 UTC) ahead of the second day of high school exams. According to Syrian Telecom, these shutdowns will occur daily through 13 June. This year, the Internet shutdown schedule is accompanied by a mobile telecommunication shutdown schedule. For this day, the mobile telecommunications were not shut off. 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.

Related documentation

Screenshot of announcement made by Syrian Telekom.

The above announcement by Syrian Telekom (via Facebook) notes that shutdowns will occur daily from 26 May to 13 June and are being implemented at the request of the Ministry of Education.

Other supporting information

Cloudflare Radar, Google Transparency Report, and IODA recorded drops in Internet traffic and Google Search usage on 3 June 2024 from 3:00 UTC (6:00 local time) to 5:30 UTC (8:30 local time).

Social media

Similar to previous years, Syrian Telecom has announced daily exam-related nationwide #Internet shutdowns through June 16. The first occurred today at 0300-0800 UTC (0600-1100 local). Monitor the traffic impact at https://t.co/cLZ26lcTbS Announcement: https://t.co/9eweC5mEr1 pic.twitter.com/hnU98jzwwH β€” Cloudflare Radar (@CloudflareRadar) May 26, 2024
In #Syria, tens of thousands of high school #students head to their exam centers in the morning... a lot of effort and effort on the part of our students... with an even greater effort by the families in these very difficult economic circumstances. https://t.co/dX0zESM4wO β€” Dayoub SY πŸ‡ΈπŸ‡Ύ (@am_dayoub) May 26, 2024
β­• #Notice The #Internet will be cut off tomorrow morning for five hours, from 6 to 11, and #communications will be cut off from 8 to 9:30 due to secondary school #exams in #Syria. Good luck!β€” Dayoub SY πŸ‡ΈπŸ‡Ύ (@am_dayoub) May 25, 2024