Cuba's grip on Web is sophisticated

Cuba's grip on Web is sophisticated

Cuba's efforts to control the Internet focus on selective access, not
censorship. A reporter found that she could visit any site, even The
Miami Herald's, but things changed when her e-mail mentioned dissidents.

By Frances Robles. frobles@MiamiHerald.com. Posted on Fri, Oct. 20, 2006.

On a monthlong assignment to Cuba, the French journalist hopped from
Internet cafe to cafe on a hunt: determine to what extent the government
censored the Net.

The results were surprising: her report, released Thursday by Reporters
Without Borders, says Internet cafes at hotels and the post office
allowed mostly unfettered access to websites, even those considered
''subversive.'' But prices were excessive and security warnings popped
up when the names of well-known Cuban dissidents appeared on the screen.

''I was surprised I could visit all websites,'' the journalist -- who
used the pseudonym of Claire Voeux to write the report so she would be
able to return to Cuba -- said in a telephone interview from France.

''But then when I opened an e-mail that had the names of dissidents on
it, this pop-up warning came on saying the program would switch off in a
few seconds,'' she added. "I thought, 'No way!'

"It was like a spy movie.''

She said she quickly bolted from the Internet cafe, in case anyone came
after her.

With just 2 percent of its 11 million people online, Cuba has one of the
lowest Internet usage rates in the world, according to Reporters Without
Borders. Thursday's report said Cuba has 1/13th the Internet usage of
Costa Rica, ranking it alongside countries such as Uganda and Sri Lanka.

Computer ownership is 3.3 per 100 inhabitants, the same as Togo, the
report added, citing the International Telecommunication Union.

The Cuban government argues that the U.S. trade embargo keeps the nation
from purchasing the fiber optic cables it needs to offer broader access
to the Web. Cuba currently depends on satellites, which offer spotty and
slow service to privileged Cubans who have access at work or have the
$4.50 an hour it costs at post office Internet facilities.

The price amounts to several weeks' pay and is an effective method of
controlling Internet access, said Julien Pain, head of Reporters Without
Borders' Internet Freedom program. The French media advocacy
organization considers Cuba one of the "15 Enemies of the Internet.''

But even Reporters Without Borders was surprised to learn that the Cuban
government does not block websites it considers hostile, such as The
Miami Herald's. Only once during her monthlong stay did Voeux find a
site -- a Mexican page about a post-Castro Cuba -- blocked.

''I was expecting many things would be censored online, for example the
Reporters Without Borders page,'' Pain said. "They are controlling the
Web in a different way. It's about surveillance and controlling access,
not censorship.''

Internet is widely available in hotels, but Cubans are prohibited from
entering tourist hotels. At the post office, two services were
available: a national ''intranet'' service which provided e-mail access
and cost $1.50 an hour, and an unrestricted international web that cost
$4.50.

Reporters Without Borders sent Voeux an e-mail with the names of known
government opponents, but added punctuation marks between the letters in
hopes that security filters would not spot them. But the e-mail was
detected, and the journalist got a warning flash on the Internet cafe
computer, saying it would shut down for "national security reasons.''

The same message appeared when she wrote a news story on a computer at
an Internet cafe at the Parque Central Hotel. She was not even on the
Web at the time, but apparently she used one of the trigger words and a
warning appeared on her screen.

''I have never heard of that anywhere in the world,'' Pain said. "I
don't even know how they do that. They scare people off the Web.''

http://www.cubanet.org/CNews/y06/oct06/23e10.htm