“The blocking of Granma newspaper, Mesa Redonda (television program) and Cubavisión Internacional, on the part of the U.S. company this past August 20, is arbitrary, with an openly restrictive character, and moreover, violates widely accepted democratic principles, limiting the right to access information,” stated the Russian Foreign Ministry’s spokesperson, Maria Zajarova, who added that the actions were spuriously based “on an accusation that they had violated the law regarding exports to the United States,” Sputnik reported.

On August 22, the Google company re-established Granma’s YouTube account, as well as those of other Cuban news services, without offering any explanation of its actions. (R.C.)

(Source: Granma)

Executives from several U.S. information technology and communications companies showed particular interest in the potentialities of the Cuban market, as well as in the development prospects of the Caribbean nation.

Invited by Eric Shmidt, technical advisor of Alphabet Inc., the Cuban President spoke with those gathered about technological development and its role in the advancement of developing countries. He also alluded to the challenges implied by these technological advances and their use in an increasingly unequal world.

During the meeting, Díaz-Canel stressed that the digitalization of society is a priority of the Cuban government. He also stressed that the United States economic blockade is the main obstacle to achieving maximum development in this sphere.

The President made reference to Cuba’s valuable human resources potential to advance in these areas; and highlighted the opportunities opening up in advanced technology sectors such as biotechnology.

Executives of Google, VaynerMedia, Connectify, Mapbox, McKinsey & Company, Virgin Group, Airbnb, Revolution, Twitter, Microsoft, Bloomberg, and Cresta, attended the meeting.

Representing Cuba alongside the President were: Bruno Rodríguez Parrila, Minister of Foreign Affairs; Rodrigo Malmierca Díaz, Minister of Foreign Trade and Investment; and Jorge Luis Perdomo Di-Lella, Minister of Communications.

The importance of new technologies for governance, society and education, as well as the island’s technological development policy, were among the topics discussed.

(Granma)

The agreement was signed by Mayra Arevich, ETECSA executive president, and Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Google, a company specializing in Internet products and services, software, electronic devices and other technologies.

This agreement will provide greater speed, quality of services and optimization of ETECSA’s international network by installing local servers on the island, thus reducing the access time for Google internet content including some of the most popular and more bandwidth-intensive content, such as YouTube videos.

Google’s presence in Cuba dates back to 2014, when a number of products such as Google Chrome, Google Play and Google Analytics were launched for the first time. A few months ago, thousands of extensions and free themes were also made available in the Chrome Web Store so that Cuban users could personalize their experiences when browsing the web.

According to the official Google blog for Latin America, these projects pursue the common goal of making global information accessible and useful for all, regardless of costs, connectivity, or language barriers.

(Granma)