In the midst of the structural crisis that Cuba is experiencing, the regime is once again intensifying its offensive against digital activism and independent media, using a narrative that seeks to delegitimize all criticism on social media by framing it as part of a "media war" orchestrated by external enemies.
In a recent speech, the leader Miguel Díaz-Canel stated that there are “two Cubas”: one “real,” which he claims resists with creativity, and another “virtual,” dominated by hatred, manipulation, and false news.
“We are facing a media campaign to discredit the revolution, filled with hatred, slander, lies, and character assassination,” said Díaz-Canel at the IV Homeland Colloquium, held on March 19 at the University of Havana.
"There is a Cuba that you see here... And there is another Cuba, which is the one that exists on social media," he added, in an attempt to discredit the numerous reports circulating in the digital ecosystem about the serious situation faced by the island.
The speech is not new, but it does reveal the growing fear of the Cuban political apparatus in the face of an informational crack that it can no longer control. Social media has transformed the country's communication landscape, allowing thousands of citizens to showcase in real time the scarcity of food, the endless lines, the blackouts, the collapse of the healthcare system, and the abuses of power.
In response to this, the regime has chosen to construct a dichotomous narrative that pits the supposed "heroic" and revolutionary Cuba against a "virtual" Cuba manipulated by foreign interests.
This account, however, deliberately conceals that behind every critical post on social media, there are real Cubans: activists, journalists, mothers, retirees, workers, and young people who document with their phones what the official press remains silent about.
What the regime calls a "campaign of hate" is nothing more than the exercise of the right to freedom of expression in a country where peacefully protesting or simply sharing an uncomfortable opinion can lead to imprisonment.
In recent years, the Cuban regime has implemented a series of legal, technological, and media measures to curb the flow of critical information online.
The approval of the new Penal Code in 2022 introduced ambiguous and dangerously broad criminal offenses to criminalize digital activism. Among them, offenses against "state security" or "dissemination of false news," which allow for the penalization of users for social media posts without the need for strong evidence.
In addition, regulations such as Decree-Law 370, known as the "Whip Law," have been used to fine and target independent journalists like Camila Acosta, penalized for expressing opinions contrary to the government on Facebook.
The recently approved Social Communication Law also reinforces state control over digital content, by establishing a legal framework that protects the official narrative and excludes any dissenting voices.
The regime not only operates through repressive legality, but also uses state resources to disinform, manipulate, and stigmatize.
In programs on Cuban television, public calls have been made for “educational punishments” for those who “slander the revolution” on social media. Official journalists like Rosa Miriam Elizalde have gone so far as to call independent media “media timbiriches,” accusing them of profiting from the suffering of others and spreading “lies funded from abroad.”
The rhetoric of power insists on portraying digital media and social platforms as spaces tainted by the CIA, the "counter-revolution," and the destabilization machinery of the "empire".
This paranoid viewpoint reduces the legitimate public discontent to a mere tool of ideological warfare, and seeks to deny or justify that the economic collapse, the massive exodus, and widespread despair are the result of the system itself.
At the same time, the regime promotes an idealized image of "real Cuba": a nation that is blocked yet dignified, poor yet supportive, with a government "working hard" to solve problems and a people who "resist with creativity."
It is a symbolic operation aimed at reinforcing the narrative of national heroism, appealing to a supposed "revolutionary" emotionality that increasingly disconnects from everyday reality.
The objective is clear: to confront the rise of critical thinking, citizen organization, and the international visibility that Cubans have achieved thanks to the internet.
Since the protests of July 11, the government realized that the narrative was getting out of its control. Therefore, it has intensified its victimization rhetoric, criminalized digital activism, and attempted to control every last meme circulating online.
But the truth is that that “virtual Cuba” that the regime fears so much is not an artificial construction or a distortion imposed from outside. Rather, it is the stark reflection of a country without freedoms, where thousands of citizens seek to break the information blockade and exercise their right to tell their own stories.
Social media are not enemies of Cuba. They are tools for citizen empowerment in a nation where the State controls almost everything. They are spaces where Cubans can report, share, debate, and organize. Ultimately, they are a window into a Cuba that is also real, even though the totalitarian power tries to deny it.
Denying that reality, pursuing it, or trying to silence it only reveals the regime's true fear: losing control over the narrative and thus their ability to impose their "truth."
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