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Fidel Castro, Internet News Junkie
pickens writes "The LA Times reports that 84-year-old Cuban ex-President Fidel Castro consumes 200 to 300 news items a day on the World Wide Web. In a recent interview he called Web communication 'the most powerful weapon that has existed' and extolled its power to break a stranglehold on the media by 'the empire' and 'ambitious private groups that have abused it' adding that the Internet 'has put an end to secrets.... We are seeing a high level of investigative journalism, as the New York Times calls it, that is within reach of the whole world.' Well, not the whole world. Cuba has the lowest level of Internet penetration in the Western Hemisphere (lower than Haiti), plus severe government restrictions and censorship affecting those who do have access. In addition Cuban law bans using the Internet to spread information that is against what the government considers to be the social interest, norms of good behavior, the integrity of the people or national security."
Maybe he just reads Alex Jones and Glenn Beck all day... probably a 911 truther too.
Cuba has the lowest Internet penetration ? How surprising, since due an illegal blockade from the world superpower it cannot legally buy any computer (do you know many computers that doesn't contain a single item made by a US corporation, from Intel to AMD for example ?) and since it cannot plug itself to the transatlantic cable going a few miles from it ?
Cuba's Internet connection is a very expensive and very limited (in bandwidth and ping) satellite connection with Finland.
So guess what ? In a capitalist country, it would mean Internet would cost a lot, and only the richest few could use it. In socialist Cuba, it means it's reserved for what is most beneficial for the society as a whole : universities, schools, gov services, and tourists. Yes, tourists, because it's Cuba primary source of hard currency, and since with the blockade everything they buy from abroad costs them much more than it should, they are desesperatly in need of it. Because no island of that size can be self-sufficient.
As for information that threatens national security or civil peace... it's not only forbidden in Cuba, but in most of the world. Just see how US gov reacted to wikileaks...