Rights group Amnesty calls on Ethiopia to end social media blackout

Amnesty International has called on the Ethiopian authorities to restore access to social media networks including Facebook, TikTok and YouTube, as a blockade of some internet platforms enters its second month.

Ethiopian men read newspapers during the October 2016 internet shutdown. AP - Mulugeta Ayene

"Ethiopian authorities have, for a month now, blocked people in the country from accessing selected social media platforms such as Facebook, Telegram, Tik Tok and YouTube," said Amnesty in a statement on Thursday.

"Amnesty International urges the Ethiopian authorities to lift this blockade without delay and to end this culture of interfering with people's right to express themselves and to seek and receive information," deputy regional director for East and Southern Africa Flavia Mwangovya said in the statement.

Internet censorship watchdogs including the Open Observatory of Network Interference and Access Now have also noted a blockade on social media networks since 9 February.

Amnesty said the shutdowns followed calls for street protests by leaders of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church after a group of rebel archbishops launched a dissident synod. 

The Tewahedo Church – representing 40 percent of Ethiopia's 120 million people – accused Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed of offering a form of recognition to the breakaway bishops, and interfering in its religious affairs.

The demonstrations were eventually cancelled after a meeting between church leaders and Abiy.

French news agency AFP said neither Abiy's office nor state-owned Ethio Telecom were immediately available for comment.

Frequent cuts

Ethiopian authorities have cut or limited access to the internet and social media platforms many times in recent years.

Between 2015 and 2017, connectivity was interrupted on a number of occasions by the previous government as it faced the largest street protest movement in 25 years.

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Under Abiy, this tendency has continued.

The northern region of Tigray, the scene of an armed conflict with the federal government, was largely deprived of telecommunications for the two-year duration of the war. 

Networks have been partially restored since a peace agreement was signed in November. 

(With AFP)