Abstract

This working paper maps how the Ethiopian state has adapted different tactics of information suppression domestically and within the EU. Focusing on the post-2018 period under Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, it explains how the regime has adapted different tactics of information suppression inherited from previous regimes to meet the demands of a rapidly changing digital information environment.

The paper explores the legal and institutional frameworks, maps the key actors and the patterns of authoritarian information suppression used, and focuses specifically on the practices of suppressing information at the level of production, dissemination and salience and among Ethiopia diaspora. This includes lawfare in the form of legal and institutional mechanisms, the use of internet shutdowns, as well as the recent use of a government-organised “media army”, paid influencers, and AI-enabled propaganda. It explains the tactics and techniques used through empirical cases, such as the #NoMore campaign during the Tigray war (2020-22), crackdown of the media amid a growing insurgency in Amhara (2023-), and propaganda focusing on Ethiopia’s right to access to the Red Sea.

The paper argues that information suppression in Ethiopia, through a combination of censorship and propaganda, aims to secure the strategic objectives of regime survival and legitimation in a fragile context. The working paper particularly highlights the shift from traditional censorship and internet shutdowns to complementary strategies that shape information salience through flooding and agenda setting to control the narrative in the online environment. This, we argue, is an adaptation partly born of the experience of the Tigray war.

The report thus outlines the tactics and techniques currently in use in Ethiopia, and its diaspora, and provides recommendations for the EU and civil society to defend and promote information freedom in especially fragile authoritarian contexts.