National shutdown
Internet Services
An internet shutdown has been in force across Ethiopia since Saturday, after a group of soldiers staged a failed coup in Amhara state, the birthplace of many of Ethiopia’s emperors as well as its national language, Amharic. The outage has frustrated citizens who rely on online services for information and for conducting business in one of sub-Saharan Africa’s fastest-growing economies.
- Total Duration 60 days
Ethiopia
- Population
- 128,691,692
- UN Classification
-
- Least Developed Country
- Land Locked Developing Country
Freedom House rates Internet freedom as Not Free
Local impact
An internet shutdown has been in force across Ethiopia since Saturday, after a group of soldiers staged a failed coup in Amhara state, the birthplace of many of Ethiopia’s emperors as well as its national language, Amharic. The outage has frustrated citizens who rely on online services for information and for conducting business in one of sub-Saharan Africa’s fastest-growing economies.
Related documentation
Alert: Internet cut across #Ethiopia amid reports of coup attempt targeting #Amhara regional state government; nationwide connectivity currently now at 10% with capital and most states offline; incident ongoing #KeepItOn⚠️📉https://t.co/v2ex69YbbN pic.twitter.com/pAtfI7nAPq — NetBlocks (@netblocks) June 22, 2019
A contiguous area of Africa two thirds the size of the EU is currently cut off from the rest of the world due to internet shutdowns: ⏱#Sudan: 20 days ⏱#Ethiopia: 10 hourshttps://t.co/iYf1beSv2nhttps://t.co/v2ex69YbbN#KeepItOn pic.twitter.com/PnO4IwRkRe — NetBlocks (@netblocks) June 23, 2019
Ethiopia has had their internet shut for a few days now and my cousins have stopped messaging me for money on fb. Thank you Abiy🕺🏾https://t.co/2q4BpbmISz — Omar (@omaroromii) June 25, 2019
Other supporting information
Access to WhatsApp and Facebook was reportedly blocked in Ethiopia between 22nd June 2019 to 22nd August 2019. OONI data collected from Ethiopia appears to corroborate these reported blocks.
The following chart aggregates OONI measurement coverage from the testing of WhatsApp in Ethiopia between 1st June 2019 to 31st August 2019.
Chart: OONI Probe testing of WhatsApp in Ethiopia between 1st June 2019 to 31st August 2019 (source: OONI MAT).
As is evident, the testing of WhatsApp presented anomalies most times it was tested in Ethiopia throughout this period, suggesting blocking. On 17th June 2019, OONI data shows that the testing of WhatsApp only presented anomalies between 05:39 UTC to 07:40 UTC, but was found reachable in all other tests later that day (suggesting that WhatsApp may have only been temporarily blocked). On the next day (18th June 2019), WhatsApp only started to present anomalies again at 17:10 UTC. While OONI data suggests that WhatsApp may have been mostly accessible between 18th to 22nd June 2019, most of the data collected between June to August 2019 presented anomalies, strongly suggesting that access to WhatsApp was interfered with in Ethiopia.
OONI data also suggests that access to Facebook Messenger was interfered with in Ethiopia during this period. The following chart aggregates OONI measurement coverage from the testing of Facebook Messenger in Ethiopia between 1st June 2019 to 31st August 2019.
Chart: OONI Probe testing of Facebook Messenger in Ethiopia between 1st June 2019 to 31st August 2019 (source: OONI MAT).
While the testing of Facebook Messenger only started to present more consistent signs of blocking (anomalies) from 27th June 2019, it’s noteworthy that, similarly to the testing of WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger presented many anomalies between June to August 2019, coinciding with the timing of the reported block.
Facebook’s website was tested very few times during this period, but presented signs of blocking most times.
Chart: OONI Probe testing of Facebook in Ethiopia between 1st June 2019 to 31st August 2019 (source: OONI MAT).
The above graph aggregates OONI measurement coverage from the testing of www.facebook.com and facebook.com in Ethiopia between 1st June 2019 to 31st August 2019. We observe that while Facebook’s website was accessible when tested on 16th June 2019, it presented anomalies (signs of blocking) every other time that it was tested until 10th August 2019. Meanwhile, OONI data also presented signs of Telegram blocking in Ethiopia in June 2019
Meanwhile, OONI data also presented signs of Telegram blocking in Ethiopia in June 2019.
Chart: OONI Probe testing of Telegram in Ethiopia between 1st June 2019 to 31st August 2019 (source: OONI MAT).
Unlike WhatsApp and Facebook, the testing of Telegram mainly presented anomalies between 12th to 20th June 2019. Thereafter, OONI data shows that Telegram was mostly found reachable when tested in Ethiopia. The relatively large concentration of anomalous measurements in June 2019 suggests that access to Telegram may have been interfered with during that period.
OONI measurements show that while most connections to Telegram endpoints failed, some were successful. Out of 10 Telegram IPs that were measured, we found that connections to 8 of them were consistently blocked, while connections to 2 Telegram IPs were consistently successful throughout all testing. This pattern suggests that Ethio Telecom may have blocked a static list of Telegram IPs.
Learn more through OONI’s research report.