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What We're Watching: Cuba's internet crackdown, Erdogan woos Ethiopia, Merkel's Russia-Ukraine tour
Cuba's internet crackdown: Just weeks after Cubans used social media to mobilize the biggest anti-government protests in decades, the communist regime will now criminalize using social media to criticize the government. The new law states that Cubans cannot use any telecommunications to undermine the country's "public order," and that internet providers must monitor users' activities and even shut down service when deemed necessary. Clearly, this move is a guise for the government to crack down on all dissent, and to codify what they've already been doing. But many emboldened Cubans, who only got online on their smartphones in 2018, say they will not back down on criticizing the government of Miguel Díaz-Canel for lack of food, medicine and general economic stagnation that's thrust millions into poverty. During recent mass protests, the government staged a brutal crackdown and shut down the internet, prompting the Biden administration to sanction Cuban officials and the police force for human rights abuses. The US has also said that it's looking for alternative ways to provide internet access to Cubans, possibly through VPN technology, a workaround solution that could not be penetrated by the draconian Cuban regime. But they are not there yet, the Biden administration says.
Turkey's diplomat-in-chief: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan fashions himself as an international diplomat these days, now offering to step in to fix conflict-ridden Ethiopia. After meeting with Ethiopia's beleaguered Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed this week, Erdogan called for a peaceful resolution in Tigray, where the government has been waging a brutal crackdown against ethnic Tigrayans since November last year. Erdogan, who was in Addis Ababa to sign a defense agreement with Abiy (details remain scarce), is worried that instability in Ethiopia threatens the entire Horn of Africa. Erdogan also offered to mediate an ongoing row between Sudan and Ethiopia over the disputed al-Fashaga region. Sudan and Ethiopia reached a deal in 2008 agreeing to a "soft border" in that area, but political changes inside Ethiopia since Abiy came to power in 2018, have revived the old land dispute. Disagreements over al-Fashaga, an agricultural area straddling both states that was never clearly demarcated, dates back to colonial-era treaties signed in 1902, but if Erdogan wants to take a shot at building bridges, we say go for it!
Merkel on tour: Chancellor Angela Merkel, who will hand over the reins after Germany's general election on September 26, is trying her hand at some final diplomatic outreach. Merkel will arrive in Moscow on Friday to meet President Vladimir Putin, presumably for the last time. On the agenda: the quagmire in eastern Ukraine as a result of Russia's aggression there, and Afghanistan. Since Merkel last visited Russia over 18-months ago, bilateral relations have plummeted, most notably after the Kremlin's alleged poisoning of opposition politician Alexei Navalny, who sought medical treatment in Germany. But the German leader has also backed Russia's plans to build the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which would double Russia's natural gas supplies to Germany. Merkel will also make a pit stop in Ukraine on Friday. Indeed, this comes at a very interesting time after Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky panned Western allies this week for not green-lighting Kyiv's accession to NATO. Speaking directly to the US and the EU, it seems, Zelensky said: you're sending "a signal to other countries that you guys are not welcome here and Russia is just around the corner, increasing its clout."
Cuba internet censorship amid protests; pressure grows against Huawei
Marietje Schaake, International Policy Director at Stanford's Cyber Policy Center, Eurasia Group senior advisor and former MEP, discusses trends in big tech, privacy protection and cyberspace:
Cuba has curbed access to messaging apps amid protests. How controlled and censored is Cuba's internet?
Well, any debate and criticism is tightly controlled in Cuba, including through information, monitoring and monopoly. But activists such as blogger Yoani Sánchez have always been brave in defying repression and making sure that messages of Cubans reached others online across the world. Now mobile internet has become accessible to Cubans since about two years, but accessing it remains incredibly expensive. But the fact that the regime in Cuba once again seeks to censor people through shutting down internet services actually shows it is its Achilles' heel. As Yoani has said, the Castros have lost the internet.
On a different note, the FCC is finalizing a program to replace Huawei equipment in the United States. Will Europe soon make a similar move?
Well, I wouldn't wait for it, although pressure is growing against Huawei in Europe too. Sweden has taken a tough line along with Eastern European countries, while a country like Spain has sought a much more gradual approach. And one of the main challenges for Europeans is to ensure a united position at the intersection of its single market and 27 nationally decided national security thresholds. It is a question also impacting universities as they continue to accept research grants from companies like Huawei.
Will the next president bridge the digital divide?
Nicholas Thompson, editor-in-chief of WIRED, helps us make sense of today's stories in technology:
What are the biggest tech questions that will be facing the next president after the election and will they do anything about them?
I think the biggest question might be the digital divide. In an era of the pandemic where schools are online, medicine is moving online, work is moving online. It is a tragedy that there are 160 million people in this country who do not have good broadband access. And that's a failure of policy in many, many ways. That is a huge issue. I also think the tech dynamics with China are a huge issue, and I think that figuring out the government's role in regulating and supporting startups in artificial intelligence is huge. Will the candidates do anything about them? Joe Biden might do something about the digital divide. Donald Trump has actually been okay on AI, but tech policy has been a disaster under Trump and probably won't be a priority under Biden.
What happened at the Section 230 hearings this week?
Well, one thing that didn't happen, we didn't talk about Section 230. A total missed opportunity for the Senate to actually debate and reconfigure a really important law that is foundational to the internet. But it is a partisan moment, a few days before election, and sadly, it's what I expected.
The Graphic Truth: How free is the internet?
As more human activities go online to prevent the spread of COVID-19, the coronavirus has actually made the internet less free than before in many parts of the world. Freedom House warns that political leaders are using the pandemic to suppress access to information under the guise of combating fake news, to justify online surveillance that otherwise would be deemed too intrusive, and to break up the World Wide Web with so-called "cyber sovereignty" regulations that are drawing national borders on the online distribution of information. We take a look at the state of internet freedom in 68 countries, highlighting the top five that have improved and declined the most.