Video shows Cuban fears of Internet, social media

[Bacchus39]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110205/wr_nm/us_cuba_usa_cyberwar_1

HAVANA (Reuters) – Cuba fears the United States is encouraging dissent through social media such as Facebook and Twitter with the goal of toppling the government, according to the video of what appears a meeting of Cuban officials posted on websites this week.

The 50-minute video apparently is a presentation given by an Internet expert to officials of Cuba's Interior Ministry last June.

A link to the video at http://vimeo.com/19402730 was posted on several blogs, including that of Cuban anti-government blogger Yoani Sanchez, and on the website of the Miami Herald. It is not known how the video was obtained.

The expert, whose identity is not disclosed, told the officials the United States is promoting use of Facebook and Twitter to foment dissent similar to ways it was used in insurrections in the Ukraine in 2004 and in Iran in 2010.

[Mika]

1. Some people say.

Some people say that the Cuban gov fears the internet....
I guess that's why they have been petitioning for access to Cisco's Caribbean cable, and getting help from Venezuela to lay one for direct access to the WWW. :crazy:

Jeezuz, the lunacy of the Cubaphobes is elevating by the day.

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[Bacchus39]

2. you can watch the video, the link is right there. what are the Castro boys afraid of??

Mubarak.

[Billy Burnett]

3. I guess that's why Castro took down Yoanni's site.

Not!

[Bacchus39]

4. Yoani' site isn't hosted in Cuba n/t

s

[Billy Burnett]

5. I guess I should've said that Castro should cut Yoani's mothers internet account.

That's how she updates her blog. For a second I forgot the Pentagon servers are hosting generation y.

[Bacchus39]

6. its hosted at a server in Germany I believe, the Cuban goverment

regularly blocks the site in Cuba. we can't have people speaking out against the government now can we? that would be undemocratic.

[Mika]

13. Where did you hear that?

My friends in Cuba regularly read generation y. For a hoot.

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[Bacchus39]

14. I've read it several times

here is one source:

On March 26, 2008, Sánchez announced to her readers that the recent problems accessing her blog appeared to be a deliberate action on the part of government censors to block access to her blog and the other blogs on the desdecuba.com website. While debate swirled back and forth on the web about whether the site was actually blocked, the reality was, and is, that Generation Y cannot be accessed in Cuba.<33> The debate about whether this was a year-long plus “fluke” or some “glitch” in the software, seemed to be resolved about a year after the site became unavailable. Comments made by a Cuban State Security agent in an interview published on March 19, 2009, in the digital magazine Kaos en la Red, where “Agent Miguel” stated, “I know State Security officials who literally prophesied that blocking the blog Generation Y within the country would, in a short time, cause the launching of Madame Sánchez into the stardom of the manipulative media campaign against Cuba. Regardless of these prophesies, they did it and now they’re paying the price.”<34>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoani_S%C3%A1nchez


how is Ecuador treating you? is the Correa government fearful of Twitter and Facebook as well?

[Mika]

15. We then .... if its about Cuba & if its in Wikipedia ....

:eyes:

Look at footnote <33> from the wiki article.

33 - http://desdecuba.com/generationy/?p=119

Just too f'n funny. :rofl:

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[Billy Burnett]

16. Oh gawd. That is hilarious, Mika.

Yoani says that Yoani is censored. LOL

[joshcryer]

21. Yoani isn't the only one saying it, commentators, and other bloggers said as much.

What's unclear is just how strong the censorship is. It's not like the common Cuban has access to her blog. We'll have to wait and see how the fiber rollout does and whether or not there's real censorship.

[naaman fletcher]

24. Yes but,

it is a critical statement of the Castros, therefore it is not true.

[joshcryer]

25. I love how one blogger had fake accounts set up in his name with pornography on it.

I also liked some spin I read about how it's inconceivable that these bloggers can "afford" to have hosting (hint: hosting is free in the civilized world, I have several blogs on blogger that I do not pay a dime for). Google might get in "trouble" for hosting these blogs, but I suspect the State Department doesn't give two shits about bloggers who speak their mind, and they probably wouldn't care about "pro-Cuba" bloggers either. (Since there's no money being exchanged I have a hard time seeing how it'd violate Helms Burton anyway.)

[naaman fletcher]

7. You could try watching the video for yourself.nt

[joshcryer]

20. Hmm, American's can send money to the Cuban bloggers now.

Cuba is going to be really shaken up once everyone has a lot of access thanks to their fiber. More and more bloggers will start up if only to get donations from foreign American's who want to hear what is going on.

And it won't just be anti-Cuba, I am sure Mika and others would like to donate to pro-Cuban bloggers.

What is interesting to me is that many of the bloggers appear anti-capitalist, and anti-Castro's government. It's quite remarkable. It's not that they "yearn for capitalism." They yearn for something better.

[EFerrari]

8. It's nutty. This story about destabilitztion is spun to be about

the Cuban government. lol

[Bacchus39]

10. ?????????????? the story is about a Cuban computer expert

discussing the "dangers" of facebook and twitter at a presentation to Cuban government officials.

p.s. lol

[EFerrari]

11. Well, no.

LOL

[Bacchus39]

12. well yes

lol@u

[joshcryer]

17. Did you view the video? That is exactly what it is about.

[joshcryer]

18. delete

responded to wrong spot

[naaman fletcher]

9. you could try watching the video yourself.

your post suggests that you are not interested in receiving information that runs counter to your belief system.

[joshcryer]

19. Somewhat related, the Wikileaks cables that mention bloggers:

http://www.wikileaks.ch/cable/2009/04/09HAVANA221.html

http://www.wikileaks.ch/cable/2010/01/10HAVANA9.html

http://www.wikileaks.ch/cable/2009/09/09HAVANA592.html

I think the video and the cables are evidence that this is the direction Cuba wants to go. Whether it can or not is debatable. I for one believe the consultant had a hard time making the case.

[joshcryer]

22. Translation effort for this video:

http://hemosoido.com/?page_id=15&kcpnum=4&lang=English

When they're done all the non-Spanish speaking naysayers will see just how convoluted this is. But then again, I am from the United States where free spectrum is a given. We fought for part of the white space that the big capitalist telecoms tried to buy up all of; after all, when we moved to digital TV we owned that space publicly, and therefore deserved to keep some of it public. While one might argue that capitalism is better at providing services, the people still deserve to have a shot at it openly.

Thank god for people like Eben Moglen who were arguing for free spectrum for years before the FCC made it happen.

[joshcryer]

23. A blog posting by someone who was at a meeting that pushed this agenda:

Here is their link of the video, and the claims of vindication: http://pequenohermanoenglish.wordpress.com/2011/02/04/the-cyber-battle/

And the blog posting itself, which describes in good detail the contents of the video: http://pequenohermanoenglish.wordpress.com/2010/11/12/operation-blogger-algorithm-for-a-disaster/

“Throw me a rope, Ernesto, and give me some ideas for what I can write about in my blog. And maybe you can review some of the articles I’m going to publish. Although of course implicit in them will be an attack on your blog… but you can’t refuse me, brother, I have to do it for work.”

And of course, seduced by the charm of the absurd, in solidarity with his fears, I will never say no.

Such a good translation (it's accurate) of such a fantastic language I am going to learn more fluently.

[joshcryer]

26. Wow read the comments on the original blog:

http://elpequenohermano.wordpress.com/2010/11/12/operacion-blogger-algoritmo-para-un-fracaso/

Holy shit the propaganda is insane. And now that the video came out the blogger in question was totally and utterly vindicated. Holy fucking shit. Direct proof of agents interfering in the works of an individual.

[Bacchus39]

27. yeah, that is the summary of the Cuba official strategy to counteract bloggers

create their own blogs with propaganda to counter the independently created blogs. for those who don't speak Spanish or don't want to listen to the Cuban computer guy in the video.

he calls the US enemy repeatedly, refers several times to Yoani, talks about Iran. remember the video was before Egypt and Tunisia too.

[joshcryer]

28. They gotta be *real* careful setting up their internet line. Real careful.

This rhetoric in a time of "internet spurred turmoil" is liable to encite revolution.

[Bacchus39]

29. I don't think its a coincidence the only thing we hear about Egypt from certain leaders

is to criticize the US.

[joshcryer]

31. They finished translating it already, that rivals the Egyptian revolution translation efforts.

http://hemosoido.com/?page_id=4

I will bump this again when I find the video, I assume they will post it on their site. Timing can sometimes be just as difficult as translating, but I have a feeling they'll figure it out.

One good Egyptian revolution translating site I discovered (thanks to DU): http://egypt.alive.in/

Funny how it works that the most repressive internet regimes on the planet are having these revolutions (Egypt, Tunisia).

[joshcryer]

32. English transcript (they didn't time it to the video):

http://translatingcuba.com/?p=7111

[dipsydoodle]

30. the website of the Miami Herald....

:rofl:

[Billy Burnett]

33. AKA: Miami Hurled.

:hi: