Posted 4 years, 5 months ago in the late afternoon by oso
An article by José Daniel Fierro in the webzine, Rebelión suggesting that Google was blocking their Blogger service to Cuban internet users has been getting lots of love around the Spanish-speaking blogosphere, most notably by Eduardo Arcos, Manuel Almeida, and Mariano Amartino’s Weblog Sobre Weblogs. Coming off of news that Google is censoring search results in China, this has caused some to comment that proprietary companies such as Google are lowering their ethical standards in order to enter the markets of authoritative regimes.
Here’s a translation of part of Fierro’s article:
Some Cuban bloggers are concerned by the impossibility to access their weblogs in the past few weeks. They are all hosted on Blogger, a service provided by Google.
In their denunciations, they blame the company for blocking service to the island which prevents them from updating and visiting the weblogs. This only takes place with Blogger, but not other companies with identical services which continue functioning normally.
Although many of them have tried to contact Blogger to find out what is happening, so far, the administrators of the American server have not given any explanation. It has however, awoken a sense of alarm.
So I spent a good chunk of yesterday afternoon running around cyberspace, trying to figure out if Cuban internet users really were being blocked from accessing their blogspot.com blogs. I emailed Ernesto and Edda and left comments on as many Cuban blogspot blogs as I could find. I started to get suspicious when no one replied, but then this morning Ernesto wrote back saying he could, in fact access his Blogspot blog. As he says:
I immediately decided to try and see if I was still able to access my old blog at blogger, which I maintained before continuing my personal blog in the web site of the Opera Web Browser, and you can see that I was able to update it as I wrote this bilingual post about the situation. Nevertheless this doesn’t prove anything, since Google may have blocked some and not all Cuban blogs. I am not aware of any Cuban blogger in a situation similar to the one described above.
In a comment, Andy Carvin might have the explanation:
Apparently Blogger had a massive system failure this week, and many of its blogs worldwide were shut down. Are you still having access problems? Supposedly the problem has been fixed.
It appears that Fierro jumped the gun when he reported that Blogger was inaccessible from Cuba and especially by suggesting that it was Google who was doing the blocking. But it also brings up the issue of credibility in the blogosphere. In the medium of weblogs, stories aren’t stories unless they’re covered by a lot of people. Posts about censorship tend to spread like wildfire, but unlike major newspapers (well, they make their mistakes too), there’s no built-in mechanism to check the facts before the stories reach their audience. Weblogs and Wikipedia won’t be seen as credible sources until they are in fact credible sources.
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hmmmm?
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Who knew that blogs would become an international issue?
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D:
Are you going to post this to GV as well?
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Wasn’t planning on it … that’s why I posted it here instead. Seems to me like your link to Ernesto’s post was all the attention that the issue really needed on GV.
Then again, not really sure why I posted it here either. If I were a regular Os.Mo.Ab reader and I saw this, I’d be like, what the fuck’s going on, where’s the anus and the bleach and the absolutely irrelevant post title.
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Lest anyone think that censorship is not a problem in Cuba due to the fact that Blogger is still up and Google was not blocking the service, I encourage everyone to watch this video:
DYING FOR THE INTERNET
Also, reading the news from Beijing, my feeling is there is more to “Massage Milk” going off-line than “an April Fool’s day in advance“.
Let’s keep in mind the government we are talking about here.
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Hola Oso! I agree, this is an unusual post in this blog
Talking about the Internet…During my last visit to Quito, I faced numerous frustrating days waiting and waiting for some pages to load. Then, I found out that what happens is that a few ISPs block lots of stuff. I felt like a child not getting access to the porno sites!!!
Enjoy your Sunday!
M
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Oso,
Cuba as such does not allow access to the Internet. Only a few are allowed direct access while everyone else that it is privliged enough to have access to it computer can only access it through Cuba’s intranet. This allows Cuban authorities to monitor and block sites as they see fit. Here is a letter from a writer that will most likely die (hunger strike) to have access to the internet.
Carta de Guillermo Fariñas a hermanos de la oposición
15 de marzo de 2006
Santa Clara, 14 de marzo del 2006
Mis queridos hermanos y hermanas de oposición al régimen totalitario
que desde hace un poco más de 47 años oprime a mi nación, la isla de
Cuba, ustedes se pueden encontrar en el exilo, en las prisiones de este
archipiélago o aparentemente en libertad en las calles cubanas.
Quiero mediante estas letras mi conmoción patentizarles por toda una
gran serie de documentos con llamamiento y peticiones, a que abandone mi
Huelga de Hambre y de Sed para que se me instale una conexión directa
en mi hogar, a la red informática Internet, desde el pasado 31 de enero
de este propio año.
Sin embargo y a pesar de mi satisfacción, porque el necesario humanismo
está presente en ustedes, mis hermanos de ideas y luchas, para lograr
la única democracia autentica, que puede existir en este mundo que
vivimos, tengo que respetuosamente rechazar sus peticiones para que salve mi
vida.
Considero, que mi persona como ayunante, representa públicamente ante
la opinión internacional, a toda la oposición pacífica y cívica al
sistema político del Dr. Fidel Castro Ruz y debemos demostrarle a los que me
reprimen, en conjunto con ustedes, que un disidente cubano es capaz de
ofrendar su mismísima vida, por lo que piensa, lucha y sacrifica día
tras día, las cosas más queridas para todo ser humano, sus familiares más
cercanos y queridos.
Con esta huelga o ayuno de alimentos sólidos creo que desmiento la
manida acusación de los que nos oprimen en nuestra propia tierra, de que
somos “Mercenarios” al servicio de una potencia extranjera. Con mi
abstinencia de nutrientes le estamos demostrando al dictador cubano y sus
seguidores que ningún “mercenario” muere por algo que no sea dinero,
mientras yo y cualquiera de ustedes estamos decididos a entregar hasta
nuestra vida por ideales.
Pienso, que lo mejor que pudiera ocurrir como desenlace a mi cívica
protesta fuera el desenlace final de mi noticiada muerte, pues
constituiría un desmentido muy práctico a las mentiras y calumnias castristas
contra sus opositores.
Mis hermano y hermanas, gracias por su humanitaria preocupación por mi
vida y tengo esperanzas que me sepan comprender aunque no estemos de
acuerdo en el aspecto si llevar mi huelga de hambre y de sed hasta las
últimas consecuencias o no.
Por favor les pido disculpas en nombre del futuro de la Patria por
negarme a cumplir a o aceptar sus consejos por lo que mi huelga continúa
hasta mi fallecimiento.
Sin más, por la Libertad y la Democracia en Cuba
Licenciado en Psicología
Guillermo Fariñas Hernández
PD: Desde la cama No. 1 de la Sala de Terapia Intensiva del hospital
Universitario “Arnaldo Milián Castro”, Ciudad de Santa Clara, provincia
de Villa Clara, Cuba.
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