Take your mind back to Cuba, in the 1990s, and the introduction of the internet:
In 1995, the Republic of Cuba received a Class B license from InterNIC, the US-based cooperative that registers servers joining the Internet, effectively giving the Cuban government an address in cyberspace. In October 1996, the revolution connected full-time to the Net, an event trumpeted in Granma, the nation’s slowly shrinking official newspaper. The Cuban régime issued a statement declaring access to the Internet a “fundamental right” of the Cuban people, and the hundred-odd computer clubs around the island prepared for its arrival. Shortly after, the government quietly changed the rules, making it virtually illegal for ordinary Cubans to buy a computer. You can study email; you just can’t actually use email.
One decade on, as my forthcoming book examines, Castro’s regime remains opposed to dissenting views.
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