Algeria shuts down Internet during national exams
In an effort to fight cheating on national exams, Algeria decided to shut off Internet access across the country during certain times this week. Both mobile and wired Internet connections will be disconnected for an hour after the beginning of each high school diploma exam. The outages will continue throughout the exam season, until June 25. Facebook will also be blocked throughout Algeria for the entire duration of the exam period. Moreover, surveillance cameras and devices to jam mobile phones have also been installed at printing presses that publish the exam. The clampdown this year follows reports of widespread cheating in 2016, when test questions were published online, forcing more than half a million students to retake the exam a week later. Over 700,000 Algerian students are taking their high school diploma exams in June.
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