Why US-Funded 'Cuban Twitter' Failed

Between 2009 and 2012, the United States financed ZunZuneo, a social network meant to encourage Cuban dissidence, revealed The Associated Press on Thursday. The failure of this program serves as a reminder that on the island, the Internet is neither free nor widespread.

There’s a smell of the Cold War in the air. Half a century after the failed Bay of Pigs landing, starting in 2009, the United States tried to favor Cuban dissidence through ZunZuneo, a kind of Twitter created especially for the island. But this program never took off — barely 40,000 users joined the network over three years — and was therefore abandoned in 2012, an Associated Press inquiry reveals.

These revelations are embarrassing for the United States. On Thursday, the White House’s press secretary swore that it was just a “development assistance” project. They also question the state of the Cuban Web: Is there freedom of expression on the Internet under Castro’s regime?

The Internet, a Luxury

The nongovernmental organization Freedom House is categorical: It puts Cuba in 59th place out of 60 countries in its 2013 study of Internet freedom — worse than Syria and China, and only slightly better than Iran. Raul Castro’s regime is at the bottom of the list with regard to the three criteria studied: barriers to accessing the Web, restrictions on content, and violations of users’ rights.

Only 23.2 percent of the Cuban population was using the Internet in 2010, according to official statistics — 3.7 percent in 2002. Further, the majority don’t have a home connection. Fewer than 5 percent of Cubans have access to “open” Internet, according to Freedom House. Internet cafés exist, but they’re prohibitively expensive — around $5 to $10 an hour, or half of the average person’s monthly salary — and you need to disclose your identity, which makes it impossible to remain anonymous.

“Money is still what divides us today, between, on the one hand, those Cubans who can access the Internet and those who will never have it, and who don’t really care since their first priority is to eat,” explains an article in the Diario de Cuba, reproduced in Courrier International. It adds, “How can you worry about information when you first need to look for something to fill your stomach, and half-decent clothing for you and your family?”

Filtering and Policing

Some sites are inaccessible in Cuba, including YouTube and blogs criticizing the regime, such as the one written by Yoani Sanchez. And yet, even so, it’s difficult to talk about Big Brother: Internet surfers easily get around censorship by tweeting via SMS providers or circulating files with the help of disks or USB sticks rather than email for example.

Beyond the financial and technical aspects, the fear of surveillance and self-censorship that the regime has brought about is vivid. In Cuba, as Ellery Biddle, a researcher who has been following online freedom in the country for six years, explains to Mashable, “There’s no expectation of privacy in most aspects of your life. I think people generally expect [online surveillance.]” Online censorship is in fact simply a reflection of daily life.