The government of Ethiopia will Judge Those Who Use Skype

Skype and Google Talk fall under the ban, in particular. Violation of the ban can lead to 15 years in prison. The country's leadership says such a decision based on the "national security and support by the monopoly of local telecommunications companies".

The Act also gives the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology of the country the right to monitor and licence all the non-state companies that import into Ethiopia equipment for data transmission.

Now in Ethiopia is only one working Internet service provider - the state Ethio Telecom, which is actively filtering access to the Internet, blocking sites of some of the news media and blogs opposition of local authorities.

In addition, adopted in Ethiopia, the law also prohibits "the transfer of audio and video traffic through social media". However, how the authorities intend to enforce this restriction is unknown.

Note that in 2010 less than one percent of Ethiopians had the access to the Internet . Average speed network connection in Ethiopia is 622 kbit / s.


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