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Rationing the Digital: the Policy and Politics of Internet Use in Cuba Today

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Rationing the Digital: the Policy and Politics of Internet Use in Cuba Today RATIONING THE DIGITAL The Policy and Politics of Internet Use in Cuba Today INTERNET MONITOR is a research project to evaluate, describe, and summarize the means, mechanisms, and extent of Internet content controls and Internet activity around the world. thenetmonitor.org INTERNET MONITOR is a project of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society. http://cyber.law.harvard.edu COVER IMAGE “Panorámica nocturna de la Habana, Capital de Cuba” Alexander Bonilla Used under a CC BY 2.0 license http://www.flickr.com/photos/lexdjelectronic/8070916071/ July 2013 Rationing the Digital: The Policy and Politics of Internet Use in Cuba Today Ellery Roberts Biddle INTERNET MONITOR! Rationing the Digital: The Policy and Politics of Internet Use in Cuba Today 1 CUBA has one of the lowest Internet MEDIA IN REVOLUTION penetration rates in the Western hemisphere In 1959, a group of guerilla insurgents led by and is routinely ranked among countries with Fidel Castro and Ernesto “Che” Guevara the highest restrictions on Internet use in the stormed the nation’s presidential palace and world. But within both categories, it is ousted former president Fulgencio Batista something of a rare bird. from power. The guerillas formed a new government that sought to remake Cuban While the precise number of Internet users in society using a unique blend of Marxist the country is difficult to calculate, it is clear doctrine and nationalistic ideology. In the that a lack of infrastructure, combined with 1960s, all private enterprises were brought economic and political hurdles, has left access under state ownership; social service systems to the global Internet out of reach for most such as healthcare and education were Cubans. But this may soon change. This aggressively developed and rebuilt to serve the spring, the country’s only telecommunications country’s entire population; and many firm, the state-owned ETECSA, activated two independent organizations and informal undersea fiber optic cables that are set to groups were brought under the umbrella of drastically increase connection speeds in state leadership. While the country’s poor, Cuba; the firm also opened over 100 who accounted for most of the population, 1 cybercafes across the island. Officials have generally applauded these reforms, many since made public promises to increase access wealthier citizens left the island in an effort to and lower currently exorbitant fees for protect their wealth.5 Along with massive Internet use. This could fundamentally change shifts in economic, social, and political life, the island’s information economy. media and information on the island underwent a drastic transformation. Nearly all Although Cuba is routinely listed alongside print and broadcast media outlets that had China, Iran, and Saudi Arabia as one of the existed prior to the revolution were closed in most Internet-restrictive countries in the 1961.6 In 1965, the state-run newspapers Hoy world, there is no conclusive evidence that the and Revolución merged to create Granma, which Cuban government practices widespread remains the most widely circulated newspaper filtering.2 While a handful of websites related on the island today.7 State-run television and to dissident activity are blocked, Cubans who radio stations were also established, while use the global Internet are able to browse the independent stations were eliminated. web and participate in digital communities 3 without facing extensive content controls. In addition to controls on media, the But most don’t get this far. Although the government also articulated a new position on country has an active national Intranet, access intellectual expression. In a famous 1961 to the global Internet is availably mainly to address to Cuba’s Union of Writers and those in high-skilled professional sectors and 4 Artists (UNEAC), Fidel Castro proposed a academia. The potential impact of digital new role for intellectuals, inscribing them in media and the global Internet on Cuban the revolution as fighters in the “ideological society has been limited due to the lack of trenches” of the revolution, which is network access on the island. Yet this has not considered to be ongoing.8 He proposed that prevented the increasing circulation of digital critical thinking and expression should exist media among the country’s nascent but only “within” (or in service of) the revolution, growing community of tech-savvy citizens. making it clear that criticism considered damaging to the revolutionary project would not be tolerated. This policy has typically been INTERNET MONITOR Rationing the Digital: The Policy and Politics of Internet Use in Cuba Today 2 enforced informally by art venues, publishing socialist society.” In practice, this means that houses, and other gatekeepers, but a handful journalists are not explicitly limited in what of artists have faced trial and even jail time for they report on, so long as their coverage their work.9 serves the “ends” or interests of the country’s socialist system. Although the Internet has brought about substantial change within informal While politically “problematic” journalists are information channels over the last six years, often simply not hired by press organizations, little has changed since the 1960s for most there have been instances where journalists Cubans seeking easily accessible news. have faced arrest and imprisonment because Granma, Trabajadores, and other major of their work. In the so-called “Black Spring” newspapers typically run from eight to twelve of 2003, the government systematically pages in length, offering coverage of public arrested, tried, and convicted 29 journalists of works and social service projects, political subversive coverage.12 events, and international news from a markedly anti-US perspective. The reflections The Internet has a limited and highly of Fidel Castro, and transcripts of speeches by controlled role in Cuban society today. Given Raúl Castro and other high-ranking officials, that most Cubans do not have access to the regularly occupy two or three pages of these global Internet, its impact as a space for the newspapers. exchange of news and information is difficult to measure, but presumably limited. The Cubans can also get news from the radio or government has developed various state news via national television news channels such as and information websites, as well as a cadre of Cubavisión and TeleRebelde, but many say state bloggers who chiefly re-post content that state media doesn’t provide adequate from state-run news sites. And a small but coverage of events on the island, particularly vociferous independent blogging community at the local level. Even established intellectual has developed on the island, where bloggers leaders have commented publicly on the mass express a broad range of views on political media’s “ineptitude in reflecting public and social issues in the country. State websites grievances.”10 Most Cubans do not rely solely and blogs often spar with those bloggers who on state media for information. In Havana, identify themselves as anti-government. This home television screens buzz with Colombian comes as no surprise: effectively, blogs have telenovelas and CNN en Español, programs that become the first medium since 1961 wherein are pirated via satellite from stations in Miami. Cubans can express themselves and document Highly educated Cubans may read literary current events without confronting any state- magazines, or Temas, the widely renowned imposed requirement for authorization or intellectual journal on the island, but rarely approval. Granma. State-run periodicals and broadcast media are A COMPLEX ECONOMY OF not explicitly censored per se, but journalists operate under certain expectations concerning CONNECTIVITY ideological character and factual accuracy; for All Internet connections in Cuba today are any person raised and educated in Cuba, these provided by the government-owned are second nature.11 Article 53 of the 1976 ETECSA, the parent company of Cuba’s constitution recognizes freedom of both telecommunications service providers. Most expression and the press, but subordinates Internet users in Cuba connect through a dial- and limits those freedoms to the “ends of the up connection. Though some use DSL, INTERNET MONITOR Rationing the Digital: The Policy and Politics of Internet Use in Cuba Today 3 wireless connections are very uncommon bureaucratic hurdles and the limited use that outside of high-end hotels.13 Latency times for citizens would derive from networks, given connecting to websites outside the country are that most people do not own laptop generally very slow.14 computers or smart phones. Until early 2013, all Internet connections in Cell phone penetration has increased rapidly the country were via satellite. Through a since regulations on cell phone purchase and partnership with the Venezuelan government ownership were liberalized in 2008.21 In 2011, and the ALBA alliance,15 the government has eleven percent of Cubans owned cell overseen the construction of an undersea phones.22 Some mobile phones in Cuba are fiber optic cable that reportedly will drastically Internet capable, but given the lack of 3G and improve connectivity for Cuban Internet WiFi networks in the country (certain tourist users. Pending the development of adequate areas are rumored to have 3G, but it has not infrastructure on the island, officials say that been detected elsewhere), they are not the cable will increase connection speeds especially useful. SMS messaging
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