![]() ![]() Internet access in Cuba has been expensive and relatively rare until recently. Not only does the cutoff block out external voices, he said, it also squelches "the internal voice of the population who have wanted to speak out." While Cuba’s recent easing of access to the internet has increased social media activity, Toker said, the level of censorship has also risen. Twitter did not appear to be blocked, though Toker noted Cuba could cut it off if it wanted to. ![]() "This does seem to be a response to social media-fueled protest," he said. ![]() On Monday, Cuban authorities were blocking Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram and Telegram, said Alp Toker, director of Netblocks, a London-based internet monitoring firm. Elsewhere, service blockages are more limited, often cutting off common social platforms around elections and times of mass protests. On the extreme side, regimes like China and North Korea exert tight control over what regular citizens can access online. Restricting internet access has become a tried-and-true method of stifling dissent by authoritarian regimes around the world, alongside government-supported disinformation campaigns and propaganda. In turn, authorities blocked social media sites in an apparent effort to stop the flow of information into, out of and within the beleaguered nation. Cubans facing the country's worst economic crisis in decades took to the streets over the weekend. ![]()
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