Past

National shutdown

Internet Services

The Syrian government, through the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Communications and Technology, implemented a nationwide internet shutdown on June 25, 2020, as part of a series of preventive measures during the National Baccalaureate Exams. This specific incident corresponds to the second major date in the official examination calendar released by the government, aimed at preventing the leakage of exam papers and ensuring the integrity of the testing process.

  • Total Duration 4 hours

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Freedom House rates Internet freedom as Not Free

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Related documentation

The Syrian government continues its policy of implementing nationwide internet blackouts during the National Secondary Education Certificate exams. For the 2020 cycle, this disruption occurred on June 25, synchronized with the start of the examination period.

The timing of the shutdown typically begins around 4:00 AM local time (01:00 UTC) to secure the logistics of distributing physical exam papers, followed by a sustained blackout of all internet services—including ADSL and mobile data—until the exam sessions conclude at approximately 8:30 AM local time.

The schedule of the disruptions follows the Scientific and Literary streams schedule published by the Syrian Ministry of Education:

Official Exam Schedule Syria 2020
Source: Official Ministry of Education Schedule for June 2020

Other supporting information

CAIDA IODA

CAIDA IODA graph for Syria, June 20-30, 2020

CAIDA IODA - AS29256

CAIDA IODA graph for AS29256 (Syrian Telecom), June 20-30, 2020

GOOGLE TRANSPARENCY REPORT

Google Transparency Report Web Search traffic graph for Syria, June 20-30, 2020
Google Transparency Report YouTube traffic graph for Syria, June 20-30, 2020