Internet censorship in Ethiopia

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This article describes censorship on the Ethiopian Internet . Ethiopia is the only sub-Saharan country that implements so-called content filters nationwide . This information reached the public in mid-2012 when every connection to the anonymizing Tor network was analyzed and blocked by deep packet inspection .

Barriers to entry

The Ethiopian government holds the monopoly on the sole telecommunications provider Ethio Telecom . And despite the fact that Ethiopia is one of the countries with the lowest number of mobile and internet users in the world, the government maintains a strict control system for digital media. In the Telecommunications Act, which was revised in 2012, it requires that all telecommunications hardware (such as smartphones and computers) be officially registered. Security guards enforce this measure at checkpoints by confiscating devices when they cannot be registered.

The possibilities for using communication technologies in Ethiopia have been extremely limited since its introduction in 1997. About 85% of the Ethiopian population live in rural areas, in areas where network infrastructure is almost entirely lacking. Although the government invested around 10% of its gross domestic product in fiber optic cables , satellite connections and broadband services in the last decade , the number of Internet users rose to just 1.5% of the population , according to the International Telecommunication Union . If one compares this development with neighboring Sudan , where a user group of 20% of the population has developed over the same period, the drasticness becomes clear. Somalia , also neighboring Ethiopia, has very comparable figures.

The low literacy rate of around 30% severely limits the full scope of use of the Internet, even when there is access to the technology. According to a study by the ITU, the cost of Ethiopian broadband connections compared to income ranks among the best in the world. A further complicating factor is that few people can afford to buy a computer and are therefore dependent on internet cafes . Ethio Telecom is also keeping the prices for broadband connections artificially expensive, while mobile and landline prices for international calls fell most recently (2013). Slow connections do the rest in terms of low usability. In 2010, Manchester University's School of Education calculated for a typical Internet café in the capital, Addis Ababa , that it would take about 6 minutes to log into an email account and retrieve a message.

Content restrictions

Although the Ethiopian government stubbornly denies the use of internet censorship, tests by the OpenNet Initiative (ONI) and the Freedom House organization show the existence of content filters. The blocking of content increases especially at times of significant political events and then decreases again. Nevertheless, it should indicate that the time periods in which there is hardly any blocking are becoming increasingly fewer.

According to ONI, the filtering of the content is primarily focused on independent online media, political blogs and the websites of Ethiopian human rights groups such as the Solidarity Committee for Ethiopian Political Prisoners . Forums and websites dealing with the detention of bloggers and journalists are blocked, as are anonymization and evasion tools. Connection tests by Freedom House at the beginning of 2013 also showed that even websites such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation or individual Facebook pages were inaccessible from Ethiopia at that time. However, given the lack of infrastructure and the lack of information about the exact way in which these tests were carried out, these statements cannot be verified. Nevertheless, the websites of international media such as Al Jazeera or The Washington Post are sometimes affected by content filters .

Since the controversial parliamentary elections in 2005, Google's hosting platform blogger.com has also been blocked frequently, as allegedly harmful information about the ruling party Revolutionary Democratic Front of the Ethiopian Peoples is spread in these virtual locations .

Some specific communication software for Voice-over-IP ( VoIP ) such as Skype or Google Voice have been banned by the Telecommunications Act since 2002 . Once the Ethiopian government wanted with its provider Ethio Telecom to prevent loss of income due to a lack of international calls. The penalties for violating these bans were nevertheless tightened in an amendment to the law of September 4, 2012: On the one hand, the amount of the fine rose to 2,500 to 20,000 Birr - this corresponds to around 100 to 750 euros . On the other hand, prison sentences were extended to a duration of 5 to 8 years for defaulting service providers and from 3 months to two years for users of these programs. Despite the ban, internet cafes offer so-called call-back services. So far there have been no reports mentioning the crackdown on the authorities and the enforcement of these penalties.

techniques

Since Ethio Telecom is state-controlled and is the only Internet service provider in Ethiopia, opposition members assume that the Internet will be deliberately slowed down or even switched off completely. That last happened in May 2011, when the Arab Spring- inspired protests started rolling. So far it is unclear whether this was a government effort to restrict communications or whether it was sabotage on a fiber optic cable. It is known, however, that the government allows the venues more bandwidth at meetings of the African Union , with the result that the usability for the rest of the population is further restricted.

Access to specific IP addresses and domains is blocked. In addition, it is assumed that URL requests are examined for keywords and that the content is refused if they are hit. Trying to find proxies using Google search, for example , does not produce any results. People who want to avoid censorship usually try to publish their posts under a pseudonym and use anonymizers to disguise their identity.

In May 2012, access to the anonymizing Tor network was prevented by Deep Packet Inspection selective filtering of data packets .

Even mobile phones are subject to a limitation: Will a user a text message / SMS sent to more than 10 people, so it requires a permit of Ethio Telecom. Without this permission, the sending of bulk messages is automatically blocked.

There are no public lists or criteria as to which online content is blocked, as the Ethiopian government denies censorship. For some time now , however, the block habitus has changed in that instead of entire website platforms like blogspot, only specific parts of them are blocked. However, the Ethiopian news portal Nazret is still completely blocked . In addition to the censorship of digital content, individual users and bloggers are also instructed to (re) remove certain content that is considered objectionable. Such a practice suggests that portions of the Ethiopian online community are being closely watched. According to Freedom House , in 2013 the authorities used more commentators and pro-government websites than before to manipulate Ethiopia's digital landscape in their favor.

Spy software

As it became known in August 2012, the Ethiopian government uses the commercial espionage toolkit FinFisher from the British-German company Gamma International . This tool can be used to switch the webcam or microphone of a computer on and off, record all keystrokes, listen to Skype calls or change files on the computer via remote access without the knowledge of the user . The software often installs itself in the form of a seemingly harmless program update, hides itself from antivirus programs and now also works on mobile phones from the major manufacturers.

consequences

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists , 7 Ethiopian journalists are currently detained. The persecution of bloggers and internet and cell phone users is ongoing: at least two people were charged in 2013. A prominent case is dissident and blogger Eskinder Nega , who was sentenced to 18 years in prison in July 2012. He is said to have used his right to freedom of expression as a cover for terrorist activities:

"Eskinder was explicitly said to have 'used his right to free expression as a cover for terrorism' and most of the so-called evidence presented in the criminal proceedings against them consisted of their journalistic writing."

- Q&A: Ethiopian journalists languish in prison

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g Freedom House: Freedom on the Net - Ethiopia - 2013 . Retrieved February 26, 2014.
  2. ↑ a b Proclamation No. 761/2012 Telecom Faud Offence Law . Retrieved March 4, 2014.
  3. ^ International Telecommunication Union - Percentage of individuals using the Internet (excel) . Retrieved February 28, 2014.
  4. ↑ AllAfrica.com of 7 January 2013 . Retrieved March 1, 2014.
  5. ↑ Andinet Teshome, Internet access in the capital of Africa (School of Education, University of Manchester, 2009); EthioTube video published by Kebena . Retrieved March 1, 2014.
  6. ↑ Irene Poetranto: Update on Information Controls in Ethiopia , OpenNet Initiative, November 1, 2012 . Retrieved March 1, 2014.
  7. ↑ Ethiopia 'Blocks' Al Jazeera Websites , Al Jazeera, March 18, 2013 . Retrieved March 1, 2014.
  8. ↑ Mohammed Ademo: Media Restrictions Tighten in Ethiopia , Columbia Journalism Review, August 13, 2012 . Retrieved March 1, 2014.
  9. ↑ Daniel Berhane: Ethiopia's Web Filtering: Advanced Technology, Hypocritical Criticisms, Bleeding Constitution, Daniel Berhane's Blog of January 16, 2011, online. Retrieved March 1, 2014.
  10. ^ Warwick Ashford, Ethiopian Government Blocks Tor Network Online Anonymity in Computer Weekly, June 28, 2012, online. Retrieved March 1, 2014.
  11. ^ Committee to Protect Journalists: Attacks on the Press in 2013: Ethiopia . Retrieved March 4, 2014.
  12. ↑ Nazret.com Q & A: Ethiopian journalists languish in prison . Retrieved March 4, 2014.