Ethiopia has blocked social networking sites in the country since Saturday to prevent leakage of university entrance examination to be held next week.
“This is a temporary measure until Wednesday as the social networks serve as a distraction to the students,” the government spokesman, Getachew Reda told AFP.
Last month, questions for the top examination were posted on social networks causing a national scandal leading to the cancellation of the entire exam.
The most popular social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Viber are inaccessible throughout Ethiopia since Saturday morning. Aside these sites, the internet is functioning normally.
The blockade has been criticized by Ethiopian internet users who have found a way around the ban by using the VPN (virtual private networks).
“This is a dangerous precedent. There is no transparency about who took the decision and for how long. This time it is for a few days, but next time it might be for a month,” Daniel Berhane, a blogger and the creator of the influential website “Horn Affairs” told AFP.
He added that they believe the Ethiopian authorities are seeking to test new internet filtering tools and also the reaction of the public.
Ethiopia filters internet regularly using firewalls which often slows network access.
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