How Iraq turned off the internet:
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 is an old hand when it comes to internet censorship, with 15 reported shutdowns in 2015 alone. At around the same time last year, officials in Iraq halted web services for the same exam-based reason. Other web blackouts took place in 2014 and included specific blocks on social media in an attempt to stop the spread of Islamic State propaganda.
But what makes the most recent case different to most – and worries civil liberties groups – is the scale and ease with which the network can be turned off.