In July 2010, Joe McSpedon, a U.S. government official, flew to Barcelona to put the final touches on a secret plan to build a social media project aimed at undermining Cubas communist government. McSpedon and his team of high-tech contractors had come in from Costa Rica and Nicaragua, Washington and Denver. Their mission: to launch a messaging network that could reach hundreds of thousands of Cubans. To hide the network from the Cuban government, they would set up a byzantine system of front companies using a Cayman Islands bank account, and recruit unsuspecting executives who would not be told of the companys ties to the U.S. government. McSpedon didnt work for the CIA. This was a program paid for and run by the U.S. Agency for International Development, best known for overseeing billions of dollars in U.S. humanitarian aid. According to documents obtained by The Associated Press and multiple interviews with people involved in the project, the plan was to develop a bare-bones Cuban Twitter, using cellphone text messaging to evade Cubas strict control of information and its stranglehold restrictions over the Internet. In a play on Twitter, it was called ZunZuneo — slang for a Cuban hummingbirds tweet. Documents show the U.S. government planned to build a subscriber base through non-controversial content: news messages on soccer, music, and hurricane updates. Later when the network reached a critical mass of subscribers, perhaps hundreds of thousands, operators would introduce political content aimed at inspiring Cubans to organize smart mobs — mass gatherings called at a moments notice that might trigger a Cuban Spring, or, as one USAID document put it, renegotiate the balance of power between the state and society. At its peak, the project drew in more than 40,000 Cubans to share news and exchange opinions. But its subscribers were never aware it was created by the U.S. government, or that American contractors were gathering their private data in the hope that it might be used for political purposes. There will be absolutely no mention of United States government involvement, according to a 2010 memo from Mobile Accord, one of the projects contractors. This is absolutely crucial for the long-term success of the service and to ensure the success of the Mission.
Posted on: Thu, 03 Apr 2014 10:28:28 +0000
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