Ethiopia is allowing people to access Facebook, Telegram, TikTok and YouTube for the first time in more than five months. The blackout was imposed on 9 February this year after tensions between the Ethiopian Orthodox Church and the government. Only those with access to virtual private network (VPN) software could get on to the social media platforms - something that cost them additional data. According to the Internet Society, the outage has cost Ethiopia $42m (£32m) because of the knock-on effect on businesses. Some areas of the northern region of Tigray, where a brutal two-year conflict came to an end last November, remain without access to the internet.

Source: Ethiopian News July 18, 2023 22:02 UTC