Cuba protests US internet task force: report

Cuba is pushing back against an internet task force organized by the United States that will probe the nation’s “flow of information.”

Cuba on Wednesday provided the top U.S. diplomat in country with a note of disapproval, Reuters reported.

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“The Foreign Ministry’s note asked the U.S. government to cease its subversive, interventionist and illegal actions against Cuba … and calls upon it to respect Cuban sovereignty,” said Cuba’s ministry, according to the report.

The State Department on Jan. 23 said the Cuba Internet Task Force would convene for the first time in a public meeting on Feb. 7 in Washington, D.C.

“The task force will examine the technological challenges and opportunities for expanding internet access and independent media in Cuba,” the State Department said last week of the effort.

President Trump has pledged a tougher stance on Cuba and last year announced a new set of restrictions on travel and business intended to roll back former President Obama’s easing of ties with the nation.

The June 2017 memorandum detailing Trump’s Cuba strategy called on Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to assemble a task force “to examine the technological challenges and opportunities for expanding internet access in Cuba.”

The goal, according to the memo, is to make it “so that the Cuban people can enjoy the free and unregulated flow of information.”