Facebook, US Helping to Stimulate November 15 Protests, Cuba Foreign Minister Says
Cuba’s international minister on Wednesday stated the USA was behind protests over human and civil rights deliberate for November 15 within the communist-run nation, and alleged US-based social media platform Fb was serving to to advertise them.
Dissidents on the island, organized below a Fb group known as Archipielago, in September requested permission to conduct the rallies. Cuban authorities denied their request, alleging protesters had been working with the USA to overthrow the federal government.
International Minister Bruno Rodriguez reiterated these allegations earlier than a gathering of international diplomats in Havana, saying the USA had helped to underwrite and set up the protests in a bid to destabilize the federal government.
“US coverage…is doomed to failure. It’s unfeasible. It hasn’t labored for 60 years. It doesn’t work now (…) and it’ll not work sooner or later,” he stated.
Rodriguez particularly known as out the position of Fb, saying dissidents organized in teams on the platform had violated the social media platform’s personal insurance policies, “altering logarithms, altering the geolocation mechanism to simulate the large presence in Cuba of individuals with accounts which are identified to reside exterior our nation, primarily in Florida and within the US territory.”
Rodriguez stated these practices violated each US and worldwide legislation.
“As has already occurred, Fb may completely be, with strict adherence to the legal guidelines, sued for these practices towards Cuba.”
Neither the US State Division nor Fb, which lately modified its firm title to Meta, instantly responded to a Reuters request for remark.
The current growth of internet entry in Cuba has given new methods for individuals to share criticisms and mobilize on-line.
The Fb group behind the protests, Archipielago, says it has 31,501 members, greater than half of which it says reside in Cuba.
Cuban dissident chief Yunior Garcia, of Archipielago, couldn’t be instantly reached for remark.
Cuba’s authorities has a monopoly on telecommunications, and frequently blames trolls and international brokers on social media for stirring unrest.
The island nation suffered disruptions in entry to web and social media following massive anti-government rallies in July, in an obvious bid to dampen additional calls to protest .
Rodriguez additionally instructed diplomats that the USA final week had supplied Cuba a million doses of vaccine towards coronavirus. He criticized the supply as “opportunistic” and irrelevant, on condition that Cuba has already vaccinated practically its whole inhabitants with home-grown medicine.
As an alternative, he made a counter-offer, suggesting that Cuba and the USA every supply a donation of their respective vaccines to a rustic extra in want of them.
© Thomson Reuters 2021
