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Cuba’s Social Media Blackout Shows New Events

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With demonstrations exploding around Cuba on Sunday in the country’s economic crisis, food shortages, and Covid-19 disease, the island’s ruling party responded by blocking access to Facebook, WhatsApp, and other social media. It’s a measure of that dictatorships have been sent repeatedly in recent years, a tool used by oppressive governments that are looking to deal with conflicts that have been made possible by the lack of internet access.

The Cuban government has done this kale, disrupting access to WhatsApp and Twitter during several protests in Havana last November. But it seems to have gone too far this time. Reports show that Cuba suffered frequent, widespread, internet frequent Sunday; once connected, not only Facebook and WhatsApp but Instagram, Signal, and Telegraph were hard or impossible to find on the island. Many And VPNs appeared closed. London-based internet company Netblocks said Tuesday that the closure of the tower is underway.

“Reports of arrests, attacks on journalists, and cyberbullying,” said Pedro Vaca Villarreal, a special reporter for the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. he wrote on the Sabbath. “The government should guarantee the freedom of assembly peacefully by refraining from oppressing and denouncing the demonstrations.”

The Cuban telecommunications company Etecsa, which provides Broadband and Cubacel phones, was founded in 1994. But the official style very much banned who may have internet access and are only starting to open slowly in 2016. In 2019 the government started allowing limited connectivity private homes and businesses. The combination of fully integrated and easy-to-use users makes it easy for the government to be able to use the internet continuously and block the platform.

“Even for decades now the Internet in Cuba is still relatively small and affordable, with the government able to improve local infrastructure through a state-owned communications company,” said Juan Carlos Lara, director of public policy at Latin America’s Derechos Digitales. . “But bans and restrictions are not just about the Cuban government. Every time we see protests, not just in Latin America, we wait for reports of blockade and bans.”

In contrast to the machines designed to control all governments, namely China Great Firewall, Cuba has not registered or banned websites and other services, mainly because it should not be.

“What is happening right now is important, because you could have, because of Cuba, had an accidental free internet connection,” Toker said. “There was a lot of lighting but no restrictions, because the chances were very low.”

Etecsa said nothing about the show and did not return to request a comment from WIRED.

“In addition to what is happening in this country, most of us have relatives suffering from Covid in remote areas and the only way we have it is through the internet,” Twitter user Félix Ernesto he wrote by requesting a phone call Tuesday. “Please hang up or answer. Most of us need the job. ”

Internet blocking, platform blocking, lighting, and monitoring are not the only countries that have large investments in infrastructure to improve digital access, such as Russia and Iran. Countries like Myanmar and Venezuela they have also used similar tactics in the face of protests and riots, and they can easily do so because their infrastructure is in the middle. It is also common for a platform to be blocked or completely shut down from the Internet to attract days, weeks, or even months without access, as in Kashmir in 2019 and 2020.



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