More than twenty accounts that supported the Cuban regime, some of them anonymous and protagonists of harassment campaigns against activists, have been closed by Facebook this Wednesday. One of them, cuban reasonsimmediately put the scream in the sky, amplified by the official newspaper Granma, qualifying the action of the social network as a “frank attempt to silence the voice of the Cuban people in the digital sphere.”
“The censorship takes place in the context of limiting the reach of national media on the social platform Twitter, which occurred yesterday,” the text continues, alluding to the consideration by that other network of “affiliated with the Government ” to users like Cubadebate, Caribbean Channel or the same Granma.
The message did not lack the usual reference to the enemy, saying that “the mission of this media outlet since its inception has been to denounce the terrorist and subversive activity of the United States government in all spheres of Antillean society” and announce that will continue to do so.
For his part, the announcer Humberto López, known for defame independent journalists and activists through television space We make Cuba and who is in the list of Cuban repressorssaid: “Two things they are very clear: 1. They care about our truth. 2. They can never silence us.”
More complaints lived by another of those affected, Mauro Torreswith more flourishes: “Facebook said ‘shut up’ and it’s as if suddenly a dagger succumbed in the back and they covered your mouth with a rag with some chemical to intoxicate you, while in the criminal face of this social network you can see the most slight smile on his final sentence: ‘what are you thinking?'”.
“It is a good day to understand that Facebook is an invention of misfortune in the form of an app, a face where there are other hidden ones who make decisions”
His writing, published on his Facebook page, now limited, concluded: “It is a good day to understand that Facebook is an invention of misfortune in the form of an app, a face where there are other hidden decision-makers. But as a necessary evil, if we give it space, they kill us with silence”.
As shared by some of those closed, Facebook notified users who do not meet the requirements to use the social network and that “the decision is final”, referring them to consult the conditions of use.
the independent media Inventory Project has counted a total of 21 accounts that have been closed, including Raúl Capote Fernández, Carlos Serpa Maceira, Borge Alex, Liset Laura Soberana or El Machete Mambí.
The social network also closed several profiles of DeZurdaTeam, Cuban Legionnaire or Cuban Warrior, several of the cyberclarias famous, from whose pages smear and insult campaigns have been created not only against artists such as Yunior García Aguilera or activists such as the family of the prisoner Andy García, clear dissidents, but also against simple citizens who do not conform to the official discourse, such as the mother Amelia Calzadillawho has made several complaints against the Government.
In a country where there are more than 1,000 political prisoners and regulations are in force that go against freedom of expression, such as the Decree-Law 370, the 349 or the brand new Penal Codethe reaction of people in networks has not been long in coming.
“In Cuba they can expel you from your career, work, harass you and summon you to the police for posts on Facebook telling the truth. That doesn’t bother them. When they eliminate accounts full of lies and that generate hatred among Cubans like the Cuban Warrior and that have a majority of the public of bots created in the UCI [Universidad de las Ciencias Informáticas] It bothers them,” a user replied to Mauro Torres.
Although some of them supported the official voice, the majority was summed up in the following imperative: “To cry for Maternity.”
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