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Young people in Havana (archive image): Mobile Internet since 2018
Photo: YAMIL LAGE / AFP
Just over a month after the extraordinary protests against the government in Cuba, it has expanded state control over citizens' Internet activities. According to a decree and other new regulations that were published on Tuesday in the official gazette of the socialist Caribbean state, among other things the call in the electronic media for “mobilizations and other actions that change public order” will be classified as a cybersecurity incident.
The interior and communications ministries as well as the armed forces should therefore monitor possible hostile and criminal activities in cyberspace, "neutralize" them and, if necessary, impose penalties. In the category of “ethical and social damage”, the list of “incidents” classified as highly dangerous also includes: “Dissemination of false news, insulting news, slander with an impact on the reputation of the country”.
On July 11th, thousands of Cubans had spontaneously demonstrated in numerous cities for freedom, against oppression and an economy of scarcity. There had been no such protests in the island nation for decades. The authoritarian government spoke of the violent unrest that the United States had instigated to divide Cuba. Security forces violently broke up the demonstrations and arrested hundreds of people.
It wasn't until 2018 that the government approved mobile internet.
Since then, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, WhatsApp and Telegram have been the most important means of communication in Cuba.
But internet access, which is already restricted on the island, has now been temporarily blocked.
Opponents of the government had exchanged views on the protests on social media.
The US government said it was looking into ways to make it easier for Cubans to access the Internet.
Some Cuban Twitter users condemned the new regulations as an attack on the right to freedom of expression and an attempt to silence critics.
pbe / dpa