The Algerian authorities have become used to enacting individual or collective punishment anytime they face even the smallest issue. Journalists in prison, political opponents abroad hunted, and now the entire country has been prevented from accessing the Internet just because nearly 800,000 kids had to take their final high school exam. Granted the exam is important for the students as its outcome will determine their entry into universities and their future but shutting down the Internet for the 40 million+ people is the ultimate sign of incompetence.
The authorities believed they were smart to not use the expression “Internet Shutdown,” referring instead to preventing access to the mobile phone service, communication apps like WhatsApp and to social media like Facebook. But block any of these and then you are blocking the Internet.
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This is the 7th year the Algerian authorities take such a drastic measure, from the 11th to 15th of June, to stem cheating and prevent leaks. This is so bad that President Abdelmadjid Tebboune pledged to end this barbaric practice during his presidential campaign at the end of 2019. He renewed his pledge immediately after he took office but obviously, he abandoned it now that he is in office.
This measure, along with mobilizing nearly 20,000 police officers and some 1,500 ambulances, is indeed punitive to the millions of people who rely on Internet access for their livelihood. From businesses that rely on the Internet for communication and for accessing their servers to a simple taxi driver who needs the apps that helps him book rides, the Algerian authorities have no concern at all.
As every year since 2016, the authorities have resorted to severe shutdowns of the Internet, the mobile network, which still run on 3G, and prevent access to social networks, to thwart, according to their narrative, attempts to cheat in the tests. Even if, in the official discourse, it is out of the question to cut off the Internet connection altogether, the fact remains that the blockages of 3G, social networks and certain messaging services widely used such as WhatsApp during exams are unreachable from 8 to 12:30 am then from 2 to 5 pm.
Thus, the Algerian authorities are not content with several and laughable legal measures they enacted against cheaters; they now must punish an entire population of 40 million people. And by the way, the Algerian penal code amended in 2020, after Tebboune took office, calls for up to 15 years in prison if you are caught cheating in the Baccalaureate exam. A completely irrational law that defies logic. And also, if you are caught cheating, the suspect is arrested immediately and incarcerated indefinitely until he appears before a judge. This is completely irrational.And to make the situation even more dramatic, none of the telecom operators and the regulator has warned the population or issued a press statement on this despicable act of national sabotage. Neither Algérie Télécom, the state company that has the monopoly over Internet access, nor the three mobile operators, Mobilis, Ooredoo and Djezzy, have communicated on these cuts. And of course, the men or women who decide on the cuts are also silent, hiding behind their bureaucratic shields.
