Ethiopia criminalises
Skype
The Ethiopian government
has clamped down on Internet-based voice-calling services, making their use a
criminal offence.
by Craig Wilson on 14 June
2012.
Ethiopia’s state-owned
Internet service provider, the Ethiopian Telecommunication Corporation
(Ethio-Telcom), has begun performing deep-packet inspection of all Internet
traffic in the country. The country’s government recently ushered in new
legislation that criminalises the use of services such as Skype, Google Talk
and other forms of Internet phone calling.
The new law, which came
into effect on 24 May, makes use of Internet voice services punishable by hefty
fines and up to 15 years in prison.
The official line from the
government is that the move is intended to protect national security and
protect the national, state-owned telecoms carrier from losing revenue to Skype
and similar services; this, despite the fact that Ethiopia’s fixed-line
penetration rate is the second worst in Africa (after Sierra Leone) at an
estimated 1% of its 85m strong population.
Ethiopia has instituted
numerous restrictions on its digital community in recent years. The government
has previously closed down Internet cafes offering voice-over-Internet protocol
services and, in December 2006, made it obligatory for Internet cafes to keep
records of the names and addresses of their customers in an effort to clamp
down on bloggers and other users critical of the regime.
The new law prohibits all
VoIP traffic along with audio and video data traffic via social media. The
Africa Review reports that the law also gives the government the right to
inspect any imports of voice communication equipment and accessories.
The OpenNet Initiative,
which tracks Internet filtering and surveillance, says in a report on Ethiopia
that the country already blocks all blogs hosted at blogspot.com and at
nazret.com, a site that aggregates Ethiopian news and has space for blogs and
forums.
The new legislation is no
doubt also motivated by the events of the Arab Spring that saw mass protests
organised via social media. With many bloggers critical of Ethiopia’s current
government, censorship by the state looks likely to increase. — (c) 2012 NewsCentral Media
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