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ZunZuneo: USAID Funded 'Cuban Twitter' To Undermine Communist Regime

Posted by timothy on from the fine-idea-to-me dept.

barlevg (2111272) writes "In a country where the government severely limits access to the world wide web, ZunZeneo, an anonymous SMS-based social network, drew more than 40,000 Cuban users at its peak, the Associated Press reports. On it, people shared news and opinions about music and culture. But what none of its subscribers knew was that the project was secretly funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), though a series of shell corporations and foreign bank accounts, and that its stated goal was 'renegotiate the balance of power between the state and society' in the Communist stronghold, hopefully leading to a 'Cuban Spring.'"

13 of 173 comments (clear)

  1. Oh goodness me, non-military means! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    How terrible the US government is, using the concepts of a free exchange of ideas to overthrow another regime!

    Well, ok, to be fair in the US, most of those free ideas are scams, but it's still slightly better than bombs and poisoned cigars.

    1. Re:Oh goodness me, non-military means! by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 3, Insightful

      How terrible the US government is, using the concepts of a free exchange of ideas to overthrow another regime!

      I'm sure the Occupy movement would call them out on this hypocrisy.

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    2. Re:Oh goodness me, non-military means! by MrNaz · · Score: 4, Insightful

      They hate us for our freedom. Underhanded manipulation of their local political system for our own agenda has nothing to do with it.

      --
      I hate printers.
    3. Re:Oh goodness me, non-military means! by goombah99 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      How terrible the US government is, using the concepts of a free exchange of ideas to overthrow another regime!

      I'm sure the Occupy movement would call them out on this hypocrisy.

      Why? Occupy got it's message out.

      --
      Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
    4. Re:Oh goodness me, non-military means! by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 3, Insightful

      With FBI and NSA keeping tabs on them under the pretext of "domestic terrorism"?

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    5. Re:Oh goodness me, non-military means! by towermac · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Not to argue, but it's not just our agenda. Freedom is the agenda of mankind.

    6. Re:Oh goodness me, non-military means! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Freedom to subvert using tax monies gained with no regulatory oversight within a foreign policy framework dictated by corporate interests?

      Sign me up!

  2. USAID by DarkOx · · Score: 5, Insightful

    USAID is suppose to be an aide organization. The moment they have to start laundering money they have gone off the reservation and entered CIA territory.

    There is a place for clandestine operation to work against regimes we don't like, that is why we have a foreign intelligence agency, CIA. Our government is completely out of control and way to large this is just more proof!

    Not only that it completely undermines the mission of USAID to have it associated with these type of shenanigans; its supposed to be about soft power, its supposed to be about building trust. Here we have one more department with in the government demonstrating laws don't matter, not ours and certainly not any other sovereigns. Shameful...

    --
    Repeal the 17th Amendment TODAY! Also Please Read http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
    1. Re:USAID by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Venezuela, Argentina, and Brazil (not to mention pretty much the rest of South America) are all places USAID funds CIA projects that aim to overthrow democratically elected governments. Are you saying the people of those countries have no right to be pissed at the U.S. for trying to destroy their political institutions in order to replace them with corporate yes-men?

  3. USA's attention to Cuba seems silly by GameboyRMH · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It's funny how butthurt they are about Cuba and how much effort they put into overthrowing Castro. It's like they don't have any bigger problems.

    --
    "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
    1. Re:USA's attention to Cuba seems silly by NotDrWho · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Batista was a U.S. puppet, and his cronies (who are now a significant voting block in FL) lost a lot of money and power when Castro came in. They want it back, and they want it back BAD. The U.S. will murder, commit terrorism, or do anything else to accomplish this goal.

      The most shameful incident (IMHO) came in 1976, when a CIA agent blew up a civilian Cuban airliner, killing 78 innocent people. And said CIA agent is still living free (and protected) in the U.S. to this day. The U.S., my country, openly committing terrorism for petty economic ends. Fucking pathetic.

      --
      SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
    2. Re:USA's attention to Cuba seems silly by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Wow. It's almost like the U.S. took over Cuba and squashed their fledgling independence movement, before setting up the mafia to run the island as a resort for well connected businessmen and politicians from the States, then upon the instigation of a successful revolution tried for decades to overthrow Cuba's government via economic sanctions, assassination, and terrorism, or something.

  4. Re:I hope this is BS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    If you've ever met anyone from Cuba they will tell you that the outside world is nothing like what they are told on the news. How is that not propaganda?

    If you've ever met anyone from America they will tell you that the outside world is nothing like what they are told on the news. How is that not propaganda?

    I have met people from the U.S. Other than Fox News viewers-- most of whom, as far as I can tell, have never left the U.S.A.--many of them are reasonably well informed about the rest of the world, know people who have immigrated from other countries, and very often have travelled to other countries.

    So I call BS on your post.

    --on the original topic, I will say that I think that this is what the U.S.A. SHOULD be doing. Skip the CIA bullshit and the invade-other-countries bullshit and the sell-guns-to-groups-overthrowing-governments-they-don't-like bullshit. Support freedom of information? Yes, I can get behind that.