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With a population of Population 11, 270, 000 over an
area 110, 860 sq. km., Cuba, has less than 2% or
112,700 of its population connected to the web. The
World Wide Web which should be accessible to all
citizens is restricted in the Republic of Cuba.
Controlled and monitored by the Ministry of
Interior, there is no internet freedom in Cuba. Only
civil servants and governmental journalists have
access to the global network. This means that Cubans
have no internet connection in their private houses
or property and have to go to cyber café, public
access points or libraries to be connected.
But prior to this, the Cuban must have an official
permission from the state this after filling an
application form and waiting for approval while
dissidents to the revolution are simply denied to
the network. Tourists and foreigners may be
connected in the hotels. Internet is used in Cuba to
promote tourism and trade and also to inform the
world about the success of the revolution.
According to 2002 statistics, the personal computer
per 1000 inhabitant is 10.7 and the cost of internet
services is expensive and unaffordable for the Cuban
citizen. This also limits the internet access.
However, in Cuba, there is also an Underground
Internet that is connecting the world to this
country. A freedom window where unrestricted access
to new data and information, the internet may hold
in check the Cuban regime and act as a counter
revolution material.
The servers in Cuba Citmatel, CenaInternet and
Infocom are state controlled. The socialist
government of Cuba see the internet as a threat to
the state national security.
Only ‘tu Isla’ meaning ‘the island’ is allowed to
Cuban nationals connecting them to the state
television and radio online programs as well as
screened downloaded pages that vehicle the communist
adherence to the party and its political ideology.
‘Tu Isla’ is an intranet, in Spanish, used to track
down every Cuban citizen. Emails act as spy, no
subversive conversations are allowed on message
boards and subversive words are alerts signs for the
cyber police.
Advanced technologies are used by the Cuban State to
control its population. Self censorship is also
practiced as surfing to protest and subversive
sites/words according to the state ideology may lead
to imprisonment.
By December 2006, sixty people were imprisoned for
posting subversive material on the World Wide Web. |
