After exams were leaked online in 2016, Ethiopia has closed its digital borders to prevent leaks.
Ethiopia has shut off internet access to its citizens, according to reports from inside the country, apparently due leaked exam papers for the nation’s grade 10 examinations.
Social media users noted that the internet service was interrupted from around 7 pm on Tuesday—reportedly to prevent exam leaks. About 1.2 million students are taking the grade 10 national exams, with another 288,000 preparing for the grade 12 university entrance exams that will take place next week.
Sources in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa told Quartz the internet was reinstituted on Wednesday morning after more than a 12-hour shutdown. Others, however, said that the connection was still being interrupted, and was going on and off. “No connection at all. Everything was blocked,” Biniam Alemayehu said. Alemayehu told Quartz that his 4G phone connection didn’t start working until 9.30 am.
Algeria’s government also took similar steps to Ethiopia’s in June 2016, when it blocked social media networks in order to fight cheating in secondary school exams.