“Cuba is not the country with a long, verifiable tradition of hacking, espionage and control,”claims a speaker at an official press seminar.
14ymedio, Madrid, 7 September 2024 — The Castro regime cut off 14ymedio’s internet access, the first time it has taken such action since this independent media outlet first began more than ten years ago. It did the same to all the country’s independent news outlets – Martí Noticias, Diario de Cuba, CiberCuba, CubaNet – which now cannot be accessed on the island without a VPN, something available only on State Security devices. However, Cubadebate, the country’s primary state-run news website, went online Saturday with its usual complaint that the United States is waging a “cyber war,” preventing Cubans from having full access to the internet.
“Today, 7.5 million Cubans (more than 70% of the population) are connected to the internet but cannot view Google Earth, use the Zoom videoconferencing system, download free Microsoft software, shop on Amazon, or acquire international domains that appear to favor tourism to the island, not to mention some of the more than 200 blocked services and applications,” Cubadebate highlights in its cover summary. “When Internet providers detect access from Cuba — whether these companies are in California, Madrid, Paris or Toronto — they act as a funnel and warn users that they are connecting through a ‘prohibited country.’”
The article coincides with a conference at a bilateral seminar between Vietnam and Cuba and “Socialist Press in Transformation” held on Thursday in Havana. It claims the U.S. has blocked Cuban access to the internet and has, at least once, publicly admitted doing so. This is a reference to a recommendation by the U.S. Department of Justice to the Federal Communications Commission in November 2022 to deny Cuba access to ARCOS-1, t
