Ethiopia: Internet censorship causing severe restrictions to information

Ethiopian regime’s deadly crackdown on protesters in the last one year was accompanied by blockage of the internet and social media, according to a report by Amnesty International.

“The crackdown on protests was accompanied by increasingly severe restrictions on access to information and communications in large parts of the country by cutting off internet access, slowing down connections and blocking social media websites,” Amnesty said.

Investigations and interviews by Amnesty international also revealed that at least 800 people have been killed in the last one year of anti-government protests.

“Amnesty International’s research since the protests began revealed that security forces responded with excessive and lethal force in their efforts to quell the protests. Amnesty International interviewed at least fifty victims and witnesses of human rights abuses during the protests, twenty human rights monitors, activists and legal practitioners within Ethiopia, and also reviewed other relevant primary and secondary information on the protests and the government’s response. Based on this research, the organisation estimates that at least 800 people have been killed since the protests began.”

It said in addition to using security forces to quash protests, the Ethiopian authorities have restricted access to internet services during the protest.

“Amnesty International’s contacts inside Ethiopia reported that social media and messaging mobile applications such as Facebook, WhatsApp and Twitter, have been largely inaccessible since early March 2016, especially in the Oromia region where the bulk of the protests were taking place.”

Tests were carried out using the Open Observatory of Network Interference (OONI)  on a total of 1,403 different URLs, including both Ethiopian and global websites, in order to determine website blocking. The tests revealed that WhatsApp was found to be blocked inside Ethiopia and Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) technology was detected. DPI is a technology that can be bought and deployed on any network, enabling monitoring and filtering of Internet traffic.

The report said Out of 1,403 different types of URLs that were tested, the types of sites that consistently presented network anomalies and which were more likely to be blocked include:  News outlets and online forums,  armed groups and political opposition websites, LGBTI websites, websites advocating free expression and circumvention tool websites (including Tor and Psiphon).