Network disruption has become commonplace in Ethiopia in the past few years. Be it for preventing exam leaks, the spread of disinformation, or to fight off cyber-attacks, the government has repeatedly disrupted communication networks. However, the legal basis with which the government often shuts down the Internet or disrupts other means of digital communications remains unclear. Despite a recent attempt by the Federal Attorney General to offer some legal justification, the legality of network disruptions under Ethiopia law is questionable. This short article considers the legality of network disruptions under Ethiopian law. Having rejected the legal justifications of the Attorney General, this article argues that the current cybercrime legislation offers a rather sound legal basis for certain forms of network disruption in Ethiopia. It further considers the pertinence of rules dealing with network disruption introduced in the cybercrime Bill (2020). The article suggests that the Bill’s network disruption rules are mostly progressive, but there remains the need for a freestanding legal framework equipped with appropriate safeguards against arbitrary practices.

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“不是水或空气”：埃塞俄比亚网络中断的合法性

过去几年，网络中断在埃塞俄比亚变得司空见惯。无论是为了防止考试泄露、虚假信息传播，还是为了抵御网络攻击，政府一再中断通信网络。然而，政府经常关闭互联网或破坏其他数字通信方式的法律依据仍不清楚。尽管联邦总检察长最近试图提供一些法律依据，但根据埃塞俄比亚法律，网络中断的合法性值得怀疑。这篇简短的文章考虑了埃塞俄比亚法律规定的网络中断的合法性。本文驳斥了总检察长的法律依据，认为当前的网络犯罪立法为埃塞俄比亚某些形式的网络中断提供了相当健全的法律基础。它还进一步考虑了网络犯罪法案 (2020) 中引入的处理网络中断的规则的相关性。文章表明，该法案的网络中断规则大多是渐进的，但仍然需要一个独立的法律框架，配备适当的保障措施，防止任意行为。