Day Eight of Iraq High School Exam-Related Internet Shutdowns

Iraq

6 July, 2023 01:00 - 05:00 (4 hours)

Local Impact

Another day, another four-hour shutdown of the Internet for everyone in Iraq, in the Iraq government’s belief that this will reduce cheating during high school exams. The shutdowns are expected to continue on July 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 15 in 2023.

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.

Data and Analysis

Cloudflare Radar shows the Internet shutdown on 6 July 2023.

Chart from Cloudflare Radar showing the Internet shutdown on 6 July 2023

Measurements from the Internet Outage Detection and Analysis (IODA) project at Georgia Tec h shows a similar drop to the previous shutdowns, beginning at 01:00 and ending at 05:00 (UTC).

Chart from IODA showing the Internet shutdown on 6 July 2023

Conversations

12th grade #exams have started in #Iraq, which means another ~5 hour #Internet #shutdown has occurred in Iraq. 12th grade exams are set for June 21, 22 ,24, 25, 26, 27; July 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 15.

Iraq Internet connectivity in near realtime:https://t.co/3SrU04E7e8 pic.twitter.com/Uz9DFhHQI4

— Internet Outage Alerts (@IODA_live) June 21, 2023