Inés María Chapman Waugh, the Deputy Prime Minister of Cuba, recently deleted a tweet that inadvertently disclosed part of the regime’s strategy for engaging in what they call ‘social media combat’. Chapman Waugh’s tweet revealed sensitive information about the government’s ongoing struggle to control the narrative on social media platforms amidst growing public disapproval.
The now-deleted tweet included images from a conference held by the Institute of Information and Social Communication (ICS), where details of Law 162/2023 ‘De Comunicación Social’ were discussed. This new law, which took effect on June 5, aims to regulate and organize the social communication system in Cuba.
During the event, Chapman Waugh shared a photograph showing a presentation slide titled ‘Gestión de las Redes Sociales’. The slide outlined that the ICS employs ’98 corporate lines, with 71 actively engaged in combat on the platform X’. It further detailed that their social media operations are conducted by 6 key users, 25 strategic users, 3 linking users, and several support accounts.
Social media users quickly seized on this information, with one user, ‘Camagüey’, pointing out the details in a viral post. Chapman’s subsequent attempt to delete her tweet only added to the controversy, as the screenshot had already spread widely.
This incident adds to Chapman’s history of social media missteps. In August 2021, she faced backlash for a tweet showing privileged conditions at an isolation center where she and her son were treated for COVID-19, contrasting sharply with the dire state of public facilities.
The broader context includes the contentious new law, which effectively silences dissent and maintains the government’s strict control over all forms of media. Under this law, any media not tied to the government, the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC), or allied mass organizations is illegal. The vagueness of the law’s provisions allows for wide-reaching censorship under the guise of preventing destabilization of the ‘socialist state’.
The social media snafu by Chapman Waugh unintentionally highlighted how the Cuban regime leverages online platforms to propagate its official narrative and suppress opposition through coordinated and covert means.
Read the full article in English on cibercuba.com, assisted by Google Translate.