Iraq: Exam-Related Internet Shutdowns Continue Into Third Week

Iraq

11 June, 2023 04:00 - 08:30 (4 hours)

Local Impact

Iraq has again experienced an exam-related Internet shutdown, the fifth such scheduled shutdown by the government since 1 June 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

IODA measurements show a drop in Internet connectivity in Iraq beginning around 1:00 UTC and resuming around 5:30 UTC. You can also see the previous three of the five previous shutdowns that have happened since 1 June.

Cloudflare Radar shows the start of the outage, along with the three previous exam-related outages since 1 June.