Facebook, Twitter and other social networks have been temporarily blocked in Algeria to try to stop cheats posting high school exam papers online.
Thousands of high school students are retaking part of their baccalaureate exams after details of earlier papers were shared on the internet, according to the state media.
A government official source was quoted as saying: “The cut in social media is directly related to the partial baccalaureate exams that are taking place on Sunday.
“This is to protect students from the publication of false papers for these exams.”
The country’s 3G mobile network also appeared to be disrupted on Sunday.
Earlier this month police arrested dozens of people – including officials working in national education offices and printers – to find out how parts of the 2016 high school exams were leaked.
It will be recalled that Turkey have earlier in the year banned social media platforms which according to reports were to reduce the level of information being shared from the country to the outside world. This came after an explosion in Turkey.
A report released by a leading media house in the country read:
“The Turkish authorities have reportedly imposed media restrictions and residents are describing limited access to social media in the aftermath of an explosion in the capital, Ankara.
Some broadcast media were reportedly subject to a ban on covering aspects of the explosion, suspected to be a car bomb.
Analysts also said that access to social media was ‘extremely slow or blocked after the explosion.’
We have also been in contact with sources in Turkey who have confirmed that this is the case.
The state-run TRT station, which broadcasts internationally, is the only TV network which can broadcast images of the bombing, a source inside TRT told the Independent.
A court order was allegedly given to restrict social media access after images of the bombing were shared online.”
Leave a Reply