Havana (AFP)
The Cuban government denounced on Wednesday the suspension of several Twitter accounts of official media, just when President Miguel Diaz-Canel was speaking live on television to discuss the shortages of gasoline on the island.
"During the intervention of Miguel Diaz-Canel at the Mesa Redonda (a prime-time program on state television, Ed), Twitter has suspended the accounts of the main media and information companies of Cuba", said on the social network the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
"In an obviously concerted operation, we tried to limit the word of the revolutionaries in favor of the truth," he added, while the Cuban president has precisely denounced Washington, through its sanctions, as responsible for fuel shortages in the country.
At the time when the head of state began to speak, the account of the program was indeed suspended, as well as that of the channel Canal Caribe, just like other accounts of official media, including those from the Granma Historical Journal or Radio Rebelde.
The suspension, immediately relayed by Cuban netizens and criticized by supporters of the government, was still at the end of the show, AFP found. No explanation was immediately available from Twitter.
Conversely, Cuba is regularly criticized by NGOs for its excessive control of the internet: in a recent report, the NGO Freedom House denounced that "blogs and critical sites are often blocked."
© 2019 AFP