Facebook, Do Not Leave Us In the Hands of Etecsa!

For those who live in societies with little access to the Internet, third-party services were an opportunity to publish on several networks at once. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez, Havavna, 4 August 2014 — Facebook is changing its privacy policy, a scenario that was easy to foresee after the Cambridge Analytica data breach scandal that affected 87 million accounts on this social network. Last April, CEO and company founder Mark Zuckerberg announced changes to prevent a similar situation from happening again.

Until now, those of us who use this platform — to disseminate stories, inform about our realities and seek a minimum of protection against the repressive onslaught of certain regimes – had no worries. Rather it seemed that we would be more protected from surveillance, attacks and data theft.

However, many of us who live in societies where freedoms are violated also suffer difficulties in connecting to the web. Hence, we use paths that range from the basic text-only messages of mobile telephony (SMS), to email or services such as IFTTT and Buffer, which allow you to update several profiles at the same time and to connect them to each other.

On August 1, the news hit like a sledgehammer. HootSuite alerted people that they will not be able to upload content to Facebook’s personal profiles from their HootSuite account. With that announcement, my chances of keeping my wall updated wall were significantly reduced. Most of the time I use third party services due to my limited access to the web and to the considerable length of time Facebook takes to load on the slow connections on the Island.

For a long time I have been able to upload my voice to Facebook, in a regular and updated way, because HootSuite allowed me to prepare the messages, program them, send them in unison to several online services, and take advantage of a few minutes on one of the wifi zones operated by Etecsa, the state telecommunications monopoly, to narrate my reality. With that possibility now closed, I fear that my presence on those sites will be less frequent.

Some friends tell me not to despair and remind me that Etecsa recently announced that the coming of the internet to Cuban mobile phones was “almost ready.” But putting hope in a company that is responsible for our technological backwardness does not seem realistic to me. Nor is it clear whether, when the web browsing service comes to cell phones, it will be possible to enter Facebook, or if the government will try to impose a local, controlled and “safe” substitute.

When the administrators of Facebook decided to shut down many third-party services, they did not foresee the fragile state in which they left the thousands or millions of users across the planet who experience restrictions in their connectivity, whether due to bandwidth or censorship problems. Slamming the door on that community, without having previously improved the tools that allow us to effectively and safely overcome these obstacles is, at the very least, a snub. This social network has a commitment to all those people who have used multiple ways to make their voices heard. They can’t burn our bridges now.

These “Internet users without Internet,” or with very little Internet, chose third party services because the ‘blue giant’ has quickly shifted in the direction of serving increasingly connected companies, users with ever more intelligent phones and countries where people speak of ‘digital government’ and ‘the internet of things’, but it has been clumsy in continuing to promote more basic tools that allow any individual with an old mobile phone and an idea to share, to post content on their wall.

It now remains for the network of “Likes” and smiley faces to strive to find solutions for these users, to put its teams to work – also — for that fraction of the world that does not have smooth access to the network but needs it as a protective shield, whistleblower channel and information bulletin board.

Come on, Facebook, you can do it… because we cannot rely on Etecsa…

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