According to Al Jazeera reports, a new legislation has been passed in Ehtiopia, criminalizing the use of VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) services such as Skype. As per the law, an individual could be imprisoned in Ethiopia for as long as 15 years for making a 30-second call over Skype or Google Talk.
Not only does the law prohibit the use of VoIP services, but it also enables the state-owned Ethio Teleco to prohibit the use of video chatting, social media, email and any other data transfer service capable of communicating information.
Ethiopian authorities argue that they imposed these bans because of "national security concerns" and to protect the state's telecommunications monopoly. The country only has one ISP, the state-owned Ethio Telecom, and has been filtering its citizens' Internet access for quite some time now to suppress opposition blogs and other news outlets.
The law also gives the government the right to inspect any imported voice communication equipment as well as the power to ban any inbound packages that don't have prior permission from the state, reports Al Jazeera.
To describe the legislation in detail, anyone in the country who uses an illegal phone service will face up to 15 years in jail and heavy fines. Making a phone call over the Internet is punishable by 3 to 8 years in prison plus fines. Ethio Teleco also recently installed a system for blocking access to the Tor network that users browse anonymously and access blocked websites, according to Reporters Without Borders.
Ethiopian authorities claim that the drastic measures called for under the new law are necessary to protect against security threats. However, African Review notes that observers are saying the law is instead aimed at limiting freedom of expression and the flow of information between the nation's 85 million people.
