How Iraq Turned Off The Internet

How Iraq Turned Off The Internet

Matt Burgess | May 19, 2016

When your internet connection dies the cause isn't likely to be a government-issued blackout. But that's the reality for people living in Iraq.
Earlier this week, Iraq's government turned off all broadband and mobile broadband connections, effectively cutting the entire country off from the rest of the world. The reason? So students didn't cheat on their exams. Each block, according to the Social Media Exchange, took place between 5am and 8am, dictated by the Ministry of Communications across "all regions of Iraq".

"Iraq Shut Down Its Internet to Prevent Sixth-Graders From Cheating." Source: http://iraq.trendolizer.com/2016/05/iraq-shut-down-its-internet-to-prevent-sixth-graders-from-cheating.html

<more at http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2016-05/19/iraq-internet-blackout-censorship; related articles and links: http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/05/iraq-shut-down-its-internet-to-prevent-sixth-graders-from-cheating/482946/ (Iraq Shut Down Its Internet to Prevent Sixth-Graders From Cheating. During exam seasons or political revolutions, government-ordered blackouts raise human-rights concerns. May 16, 2016) and http://www.theverge.com/2016/5/17/11688978/iraq-internet-block-exam-cheating (Iraq shuts down internet to prevent students from cheating on exams
Periodic outages mirror shutdowns ordered last year during end-of-year tests. May 17, 2016)>