Internet shutdowns in Ethiopia: Discourses of digital sovereignty and information suppression amid political instability
Published in New Media & Society, 2025
This article examines Ethiopia’s internet shutdowns between 2005 and 2024, analyzing their frequency, motives, and socio-political effects through the lenses of digital sovereignty and internet governance. Using quantitative trend analysis alongside qualitative analysis of official government narratives, the study identifies four major forms of disruption: full internet blackouts, network shutdowns, platform blockages, and internet slowdowns.
The findings show a shift from sporadic disruptions to sustained and increasingly targeted interventions, especially by 2023–2024. Government narratives often justify shutdowns as necessary public-safety measures, linking online hate and misinformation to offline violence.
The article argues that internet shutdowns in Global South contexts should not be understood only as censorship tools. They also emerge from tensions around platform accountability, content-moderation failures, sovereignty, and state power, while still carrying serious consequences for political expression and access to information.
Recommended citation: Chala, Endalkachew H., & Workneh, Téwodros W. (2025). "Internet shutdowns in Ethiopia: Discourses of digital sovereignty and information suppression amid political instability." New Media & Society, 28(9), 4942–4962. https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448251378981
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