Day Five of Iraq High School Exam-Related Internet Shutdowns

Iraq

26 June, 2023 01:00 - 05:30 (4 hours)

Local Impact

Iraq experienced its fifth Internet shutdown in the most recent series of exam-related shutdowns ordered by government authorities to curb cheating during high school exams period. Another shutdown is expected on 27 June 2023 and then the series of shutdowns will start again on 4 July 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 shutdown on 26 June, the fifth in this series of exam-related shutdowns.

Chart from Cloudflare Radar showing the drop in Internet connectivity in Iraq on June 25 and June 26.

Measurements from the Internet Outage Detection and Analysis (IODA) project at Georgia Tech show a similar drop to the previous shutdowns, beginning at 01:00 and ending at 05:30 (UTC).

Chart from IODA that shows repeated drops in Internet connectivity in Iraq.

The from any of their test probes in Iraq.

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

— IODA (@IODA_live) June 21, 2023