Hello Oonitarians!
Today OONI and Amnesty International released a joint report that examines internet censorship events in Ethiopia from June to October 2016, in the midst of heavy protests and leading up to the country's state of emergency.
You can find the report via the following links:
OONI: *https://ooni.torproject.org/post/ethiopia-report/*
Amnesty International: *https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/afr25/5312/2016/en/*
You can also find the *pdf* version of the report here: https://ooni.torproject.org/documents/Ethiopia-Offline-evidence-of.pdf
As part of our study, OONI conducted network measurement tests in Ethiopia with the help of anonymous researchers and Amnesty International collected testimonies pertaining to censorship events through interviews with Ethiopians. We were able to corroborate reports on censorship events with technical data that now serves as *evidence* of such events.
Our key findings show:
1. *WhatsApp was blocked* during the protests.
2. *Deep Packet Inspection (DPI)* technology was used to block access to *ecadforum.com*, a major Ethiopian news website.
3. *16 different news websites appeared to be censored* in similar fashion to ecadforum.com, indicating that they were likely blocked by DPI technology as well.
4. Amongst the various different types of websites that appear to have been blocked during the protests are the following:
- *LGBTI websites*.
- *Sites advocating for free expression*.
- *News outlets and online forums*.
- *Armed groups and political opposition websites*.
- *Circumvention tool websites *(including *torproject.org* and *psiphon.ca*). However, we did not find tor software itself being blocked, and Tor Metrics data indicates that there was an increased usage of tor software over the last months (possibly due to increased censorship).
5. Third-party data (such as Google transparency reports) clearly shows that there was an *internet shutdown in Ethiopia in August* in the midst of heavy protests. While Ethiopians also reported a mobile shutdown in October, third-party data does not show a total shutdown, but that there was a decrease in the overall traffic originating from Ethiopia during that month (indicating that some networks might have been shut down in certain locations).
Many of the censorship events detected as part of this study can now potentially be justified by the Ethiopian government under the state of emergency. However, it's important to emphasize that WhatsApp, news outlets, online forums, and various other websites were found to be filtered /prior/ to the state of emergency declaration, and in the midst of heavy protests.
OONI data can serve as evidence of such censorship events, and it can be found here: *https://explorer.ooni.torproject.org/country/ET
*Please contact us with any questions you may have.
All the best,
Maria.