The Ethiopian government is cracking down on Skype users. In May, the country's government made it illegal for people to communicate using audio or video communication through Voice-over-Internet-Protocol (VoIP). Part of these VoIP services includes any kind of video communication system in addition to Skype, such as Google Voice.
If someone is caught using any of these communication programs, the maximum time they could serve for breaking the law is 15 years in prison.
The law comes as no surprise to residents of the country, as the Ethiopian government is well known for censoring its citizens and the way in which they communicate. According to BBC, Skype communication is much more difficult to stop compared to typical phone communication.
Reporters Without Borders states that the Ethiopian government put the ruling into place in order to retain national security and to keep its control over telephone communication.
"Internet cafes may be allowing people to make calls for far less than the cost of Ethiopia telecom, the state's telecommunications provider that has the monopoly and charges very high prices -- and doesn't want to have its service undermined," former BBC Ethiopia correspondent Elizabeth Blunt said to BBC.
Ethiopia has a history of being very stubborn towards new technology advances and are known for putting up a fight before becoming accepting towards them.
Transforming Ethiopia, a blog, pointed out that years ago Ethiopia put a similar legal ban on satellite dish and credit card usage. Now both of these entities are used and acceptable all over the country.
"There seems to be an inherent interest to put every beast under control; no matter how harmless it is," says the blog.
