Iraq
On 5 July, the Iraq government again shutdown the Internet as part of their series of exam-related shutdowns ordered by government authorities to curb cheating during high school exams period. The shutdowns are expected to continued on July 6, 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.
Cloudflare Radar shows the Internet shutdown on 5 July 2023.
![Chart from Cloudflare Radar showing the outage on 5 July 2023.](https://pulse.internetsociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/iraq-cloudflare-5-july.png)
Measurements from the Internet Outage Detection and Analysis (IODA) project at Georgia Tech shows a similar drop to the previous shutdowns, beginning at 01:00 and ending at 05:00 (UTC).
![Chart from IODA showing the shutdown on July 5](https://pulse.internetsociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/iraq-ioda-july7-1024x581.png)
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
- Day Six of Iraq High School Exam-Related Internet Shutdowns [4 July]
- Day Five of Iraq High School Exam-Related Internet Shutdowns [26 June]
- Day Four of Iraq High School Exam-Related Internet Shutdowns [25 June]
- Iraq High School Exam-Related Shutdown Continue [24 June]
- Second Iraq High School Exam-Related Shutdown [22 June]
- Iraq Starts a New Series of Shutdowns [21 June]
- Iraq: Exam-Related Internet Shutdowns Steady But More Expected [17 June]
- Iraq: Sixth Internet Shutdown for Exams [13 June]
- Iraq: Exam-Related Internet Shutdowns Continue Into Third Week [12 June]
- Iraq: Four Exam-Related Internet Shutdowns in the Last Eight Days [8 June]
- Iraq Experiences Third Exam-Related Shutdown For Year [6 June]
- Second Exam-Related Internet Shutdown, Iraq [4 June]
- Despite Cost to Economy, Iraq Imposes Internet Shutdown During Exams [1 June]
- Iraq Ministry of Communication Takes Positive Action Against Shutdowns [22 May]