Inside Cuba’s Digital Transformation
By Anthony Silberfeld & Samuel George
“It isn’t illegal, but it’s not exactly legal either.” So goes a common disclaimer about many facets of life in today’s Cuba.
We heard it from Cubans doing online business, pricing exchanges in fungible cell phone minutes, for lack of credit cards. We heard it from Havana’s entrepreneurs going door-to-door, selling the opportunity to download the latest Hollywood movies from hard drives.
And we said it to each other as we filmed the journey on the sly for a new Bertelsmann Foundation documentary.
These gray areas are a new way of life in Cuba. For decades after their country’s revolution, Cubans understood that most situations involved a binary choice: It was yes or no, black or white, compañero or gusano. The transfer of power from Fidel Castro to his brother, Raul, in 2008, however, ended the period of stark, clear choices. Incremental reform has led to ambiguity ̶ political, economic and social spaces that are navigated safely only with caution and a dash of creativity.
In April of this year, we traveled to Cuba to investigate the impact of digital technology on the island. For years, Cuba maintained a reputation as one of the least connected countries in the world. But we had had reason to believe that this was changing.
For one thing, after former US President Obama spearheaded a policy of rapprochement in 2015, the Cuban government began opening “wi-fi parks” throughout the island. These public parks offer wi-fi connections that can be purchased by the minute. Access is expensive - an hour of internet time costs US$1.50 in a country in which many people officially earn between US$20 and US$30 a month – but, for the first time, many people were finding their way online.
Just how ubiquitous had digital technology become, we wondered? And how had it changed a country that otherwise seems stuck in time?
What we found on the island surprised us. On the one hand, many people remain very much unconnected.
The price of internet is high, and outside of Havana, the wifi parks are much less common anyway. But we also found tremendous ingenuity – explained to us as “The Cuban Hacker Sprit”. Despite limited access to internet or infrastructure, Cubans had found ways to “reverse engineer” many of the functions of the internet we take for granted.
For example, Cubans do not have Netflix, or HBO Go, but they do have thumb drives. A thriving market has emerged for sharing the most up-to-date television shows and movies via hard drive download. Known as “El Paquete”, or “the package”, the library of available digital content is updated on a weekly basis—often surpassing what we might expect from Comcast or Verizon, for a fraction of the price.
This is just one of the fascinating stories we found and filmed in our new documentary Cuba’s Digital Revolution. In the piece we seek to shine light on the gray areas as the country navigates a complicated digital transition.
Internet is available, but still too expensive for some like singer Africa Reina
Make no mistake, this is not a counterrevolution. It is a carefully orchestrated transformation in which the government and its people have roles to play. The former provides limited opportunities for change; the latter push the boundaries until meeting official resistance. From microenterprises to political blogging, makeshift social networks to e-commerce, Cubans are testing the limits of government tolerance and driving their country into uncharted waters.
Cuba is consequently in flux. It is an island undergoing four distinct yet simultaneous transitions: technological, political, economic and social. This would be an immense challenge in an analog era. In the digital age, however, it means potentially fundamental and permanent change.
What is Cuba, and what does it want to be? The answer to these questions leads only to gray areas.
Cuba is an outlier concerning technology’s impact on democratic development. The country’s low internet-penetration rate, poor digital infrastructure, censorship and pricing structure all hinder progress. But there is reason for optimism. Raul Castro’s government has taken steps to facilitate a digital transformation.
From allowing the ownership of computers and mobile phones to upgrading the telecommunications infrastructure and cementing service agreements with U.S. companies, Havana is micromanaging a technological revolution. At the same time, a creative and inventive grassroots community continuously tests the limits of governmental tolerance. Those who push the boundaries of the permissible provide momentum to the four transitions affecting Cuban society.
In the years ahead, the government will likely add to this momentum by piloting residential internet connections. Perhaps the cost of internet access will also continue to fall.
And in the meantime, the Cuban people will continue to separate black from white to take advantage of all things gray.
Anthony Silberfeld is the Director of Transatlantic Relations at the Bertelsmann Foundation
Samuel George is the Global Markets and Digital Advisor of the Bertelsmann Foundation