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US created 'Cuban Twitter'

Summary

4 April 2014

The US created a text message social network designed to cause unrest in Cuba, according to an investigation by the Associated Press news agency. ZunZuneo, called the 'Cuban Twitter', had over 40,000 users in a country with limited access to the internet. The project is thought to have lasted from 2009-2012. 

Reporter:

Sarah Rainsford

Report

ZunZuneo was popular here in Cuba. The service provided news - on sport and culture in particular - straight to subscribers' mobile telephones. But users had no idea they were signing up to a programme created in the United States. 

Funded by the US government development agency USAID, ZunZuneo targeted young Cubans in particular. Ultimately, the goal was to send political messages via the network, aimed at provoking a 'Cuban Spring'. 

But users told the BBC that the service ended abruptly over a year ago, before they received any kind of political content. Confirming that the project did indeed exist, the White House called ZunZuneo a 'development' programme, intended to help the 'free flow' of information. 

But the US has a long history of trying to provoke regime change in Havana: starting with assassination plots against Fidel Castro - then a trade embargo - and more recently, high-tech projects like this one.