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Reports: U.S. Built Secret 'Cuban Twitter'

Colin Hale |
April 3, 2014 | 3:11 p.m. PDT

Associate News Editor

University of Havana, where internet access is restricted/Photo: Colin Hale
University of Havana, where internet access is restricted/Photo: Colin Hale
The United States allegedly built a secret Twitter-like social media platform to foment dissent in communist Cuba, according to reports from the Associated Press.

The "ZunZuneo" project, according to the AP, was run by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and relied on shell companies and secret networks to deploy a rudimentary messaging service on the island.

"ZunZuneo" is the Cuban slang word for a hummingbird's tweet.

According to reports, USAID planned to use the platform to send messages on "non-controversial content" like sports, music, and weather reports.  When a subscriber base was established, the platform could help to organize "smart mobs."

USAID and the U.S. Department of State responded to Thursday's reports by saying that the messaging platform was never secretive or covert.

"USAID is a development agency, not an intelligence agency, and we work all over the world to help people exercise their fundamental rights and freedoms, and give them access to tools to improve their lives and connect with the outside world," an official at USAID told reporters on Thursday

"In the implementation has the government taken steps to be discreet in non-permissive environments? Of course. That's how you protect the practitioners and the public. In hostile environments, we often take steps to protect the partners we're working with on the ground. This is not unique to Cuba."

Internet access in Cuba is limited to those in high places of government and business, universities, and tourists in hotels. Access is generally restricted to only approved websites and networks and is considered by Cubans and visitors to be intensely monitored by the Cuban government.

Unrestricted, open internet is all but restricted on the island, which is less than 100 miles from the southern coast of Florida.

Read more about the USAID's secret 'Cuban Twitter' on the Guardian (UK), National Post, and Reuters.

Reach Associate News Editor Colin Hale here. Follow him on Twitter.



 

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