Words such as “democracy,” “human rights,” and “hunger strike” are reportedly being blocked from text messages in Cuba, and the communist government has been filtering and blocking around 30 keywords.
“We always thought texts were vanishing because the provider is so incompetent, then we decided to check using words that bothered the government,” said the head of opposition youth group Somos Mas, Eliecer Avila.
“We discovered not just us but the entire country is being censored,” they claimed. “It just shows how insecure and paranoid the government is.”
“Somos Mas” was also blocked, as well as the name of investigative blogger Yoani Sanchez, who launched the report into the blocking.
Messages that failed to send were then listed as sent.
Reuters confirmed the claims with their own investigation, reiterating the fact that certain keywords would refuse to send.
During a presidential visit in March, Barack Obama announced that Google would start to provide broadband to Cuba, where access to a private internet connection is highly regulated and only granted to government officials, diplomats, and employees of foreign companies.
Charlie Nash is a reporter for Breitbart Tech. You can follow him on Twitter @MrNashington or like his page at Facebook.
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