ZunZuneo was reportedly introduced with information about everyday topics such as sport and weather
The
US created a text-message social network designed to foment unrest in
Cuba, according to an investigation by the Associated Press news agency.
The project reportedly lasted from 2009-12 when the grant money
ran out.The US is said to have concealed its links to the network through a series of shell companies and by funnelling messages through other countries.
The BBC's Sarah Rainsford in the Cuban capital of Havana says the project appears to have taken advantage of the thirst for information on the island, where there is no independent media.
'Bogus advertisements '
The scheme was reportedly operated by the US Agency for International Development (USAID), a federal international development organisation run under the aegis of the Department of State.
“There will be absolutely no mention of United States government involvement”
Mobile Accord
Project creator
In a statement, USAID said its work was "consistent with US law".
But the Associated Press report could undermine USAID's longstanding claims that it does not take covert action in the countries where it operates aid programmes.
ZunZuneo, slang for a Cuban hummingbird's tweet, was reportedly designed to attract a subscriber base with discussion initially about everyday topics such as sport and weather.
US officials then planned to introduce political messages in the hope of spurring the network's users, especially younger Cubans, into dissent from their communist-run government, the Associated Press reports.
"There will be absolutely no mention of United States government involvement," said a 2010 memo from Mobile Accord, one of the project's creators, obtained by the news agency.
Executives set up firms in Spain and the Cayman Islands to pay the company's bills and routed the text messages away from US servers.
A website and bogus web advertisements
were created to give the impression of a real firm, the Associated Press reports.As the money dried up, US officials reportedly approached Twitter founder Jack Dorsey for funding.
Senator Patrick Leahy, chairman of the foreign operations appropriation subcommittee, said the ZunZuneo revelations were troubling.
One former subscriber, Javiel, told the BBC's Sarah Rainsford that he had registered
with ZunZuneo after a friend gave him a phone number to call. Javiel
said he then began receiving sports news for free by text message.He said he had no idea the service was funded by the US government and never received anything remotely political or suspicious.
"I just wanted the sports news," Javiel told the BBC, remembering that ZunZuneo was particularly useful during the last World Cup.
He did not believe it would have worked as a means of organising people politically if Cubans had known of America's involvement.
He said that at some point over a year ago the messages stopped.
Obama plays the Cold Warrior Passe Idiot Again--to America's shame. Who is pulling Obama's strings?
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