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Contd. E21 Ethiopia For most of its history, the internet in Ethiopia was a state monopoly, provided by Ethio Telecom. In 2021, the Kenyan telecom company Safaricom received a license to start operating in Ethiopia. International investors contributed to the creation of Safaricom Telecommunications Ethiopia, a local subsidiary of the Kenyan giant. Public records show it launched its national network in October 2022.37 Safaricom’s entry into the Ethiopian telecom market was touted as a milestone for communications liberalization and business opportunity in the country, despite continued government internet shutdowns.38 Ethiopia and Geedge According to the leaked documents, Geedge Networks began operating in Ethiopia in 2021, one year before the Tigray ceasefire in 2022 and around the same time Safaricom was entering the Ethiopian telecom market. A revision log records events carried out by Geedge employees as early as September 2021. A document titled "E21 On-site Network Planning and Program Deployment Planning" provides a detailed overview of the deployment of Geedge technologies across various cities in Ethiopia. The document: Includes two tables, one listing all the regional and national data centers and network links that were active, and another table detailing major changes made to the configurations within each data center. Describes maintenance and operations work, recording the dates of changes, and names of which Geedge employee signed off on each change. The revision log covers events between September 2021 and June 2024. A December 2022 log entry notes that Geedge CTO Zheng Chao signed off on work at two Safaricom regional data centers in Addis Ababa. The revision log entry for February 2023 also details Geedge’s work to add capacity for Safaricom. While Geedge worked to support the installation of surveillance and censorship technology in Safaricom Ethiopia data centers, in June 2023 the company received a $10.9 million investment from, among other investors, the World Bank Group and British International Investment, the UK government’s development finance institution.39 Throughout 2023, Geedge continued to add capacity and expanded to new data centers. The log only records two maintenance events in 2024, with one related to the repair of a network card.

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The Internet Coup A Technical Analysis on How a Chinese Company is Exporting The Great Firewall to Autocratic Regimes

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Digital Rights
Digital Surveillance
Internet Connectivity / Accessibility
Internet Restrictions

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INTER SECLAB

Date Published: Sep 9, 2025

Abstract: Over the past two decades, the Chinese government has been steadily refining their model of internet control using surveillance and censorship technologies domestically while promoting this approach to other nations under the banner of “digital sovereignty”. Through the export of these technologies, China is not only extending its global influence but also laying the foundation for a federated system of internet governance. In this system, Chinese companies provide the infrastructure and expertise for client governments to more easily monitor and control their own networks, while learning from these deployments and improving collective capacity for digital authoritarianism worldwide.

This research by InterSecLab uncovers evidence of the export of a suite of technologies resembling China’s Great Firewall by Geedge Networks, a private company linked to the academic entity ‘Massive and Effective Stream Analysis’ (Mesalab), a research laboratory at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Our team’s investigation identifies a pattern of commercialization of surveillance capabilities, with Geedge Networks offering a suite of products that enable comprehensive monitoring and control of internet users.

InterSecLab’s analysis reveals that Geedge Networks is contracted with governments in Kazakhstan, Ethiopia, Pakistan, Myanmar, and one other unknown country to establish sophisticated systems of internet censorship and surveillance. Furthermore, our findings indicate that Geedge Networks is also involved in developing similar systems deployed within China, including in Xinjiang and other regions.

Based on analysis of a leak of more than 100,000 Geedge Networks documents that was shared with InterSecLab, this research sheds light on the features and capabilities of Geedge Networks’ systems, which include deep packet inspection, real-time monitoring of mobile subscribers, granular control over internet traffic, as well as censorship rules that can be tailored to each region. The leak also reveals information about Geedge Networks’ relationship with the academic entity, Mesalab, as well as their interactions with client governments. The implications for data sovereignty are significant, and our findings raise concerns about the commoditization of surveillance and information control technologies.

This research examines the recent development of Geedge Networks’ systems in various countries, including what is known about their deployment timelines. By analyzing the company’s internal documentation, InterSecLab was able to chronicle the expansion of commercially available national firewalls and speculate about the implications for the future of the global internet considering the spread of such systems.

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The Internet Coup A Technical Analysis on How a Chinese Company is Exporting The Great Firewall to Autocratic Regimes

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