Welcome to the latest edition of Communications Review. This issue is published on the heels of our annual Global Communications Forum, where speakers and participants engaged in lively, insightful debates on the event’s overarching theme, ‘Visualising 2015’. They discussed the opportunities, challenges and concerns communications operators face as they prepare for an alwayson, globalised world dominated by digital technologies.

Castro’s answer to social networks? A Cuban Facebook clone

Red Social was allegedly been set up by Cuba’s Ministry of Education. It’s impossible to access from outside the island. (Screenshot by La Chiringa de Cuba)

By SANDRO MAIRATA
Channel: Latin American Affairs

Launched under the radar a few days ago, “Red Social” (literally, “Social Network”), is the Castro regime’s latest attempt to squeeze the information flow in Cuba.

The site mimics the look and feel of Facebook, replacing the site’s famous depiction of all continents linked by its service with an illustration of the island, with Cubans only connecting with fellow Cubans. “A virtual meeting point for Cuban universities,” the homepage slogan reads.

“It appears to be a Ministry of Education-sponsored idea,” writes Carlos Alberto Pérez Benítez, on the blog La Chiringa de Cuba. Pérez Benítez points out the network is available Intranet-only within the island. In fact, Red Social uses a Facebook-clone address, http://facebook.ismm.edu.cu/, which is impossible to access from the United States.