Ethiopia’s Internet freedom is seemingly on its way to a grinding halt. After passing laws that criminalize use of VoIP, the government has blocked software that can be used to access blocked sites in the country named Tor.
Tor Project is free software and an open network that enables users to defend against a form of network surveillance that threatens personal freedom and privacy, confidential business activities and relationships, as well as state security known as traffic analysis.
Last month, major sites such as Facebook, Twitter and emails from Gmail were being monitored by the state.
It was revealed last week that the Ethiopian government had enlisted a new law that prohibits citizens from using VoIP services such as Skype, Gtalk and Paltalk.
The government gave security reasons as part of their anti-VoIP campaign. It was also said it implemented the law to secure the national telecom company, Ethio-Telecom from unfair competition that VoIP posses.
Reporters Without Borders raised this issue and termed it as press censorship. The government has deployed DPI (Deep Packet Inspection) that is used to “spy” and block websites.
The use of this method has been witnessed in countries like Iran and China where there is massive press censorship especially on the Internet.
The Arab revolution, that rocked parts of the Middle East and North African states such as Tunisia and Egypt started by online activists, might be a fear that the Ethiopian government has.
