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The independent Cuban digital platform El Toque reported this Saturday that it is currently experiencing a large-scale distributed denial of service attack (DDoS), which began at 3:10 PM Cuba time and primarily originates from Chinese servers.
According to the media outlet itself, its mitigation systems blocked over 124 million malicious requests in less than three hours, peaking at 8.1 million requests in five-minute intervals. The protection system data used by the platform recorded 122.36 million requests blocked directly and an additional 2.49 million submitted for verification, out of a total of 124.85 million.
"We are once again under digital attack," the outlet warned in its statement, specifying that "the attack is still active and being contained," although users attempting to access the platform may experience temporary disruptions.
El Toque framed the incident as part of what it described as "a sustained pattern of digital aggression" against its platform and other independent Cuban media.
The most recent and direct precedent was the DDoS attack on December 17, 2025, which occurred a day before the Central Bank of Cuba announced its new official floating exchange rate. On that occasion, the director of the outlet, José Jasán Nieves, directly accused the Cuban government of being behind the attack. Sandro Castro, grandson of Fidel Castro, even publicly celebrated that incident, declaring that "we have already managed to defeat El Toque."
The blockade of the site from Cuba following that attack lasted at least until February 15, 2026, according to data from the Open Observatory of Network Interference (OONI).
El Toque is mainly known for publishing the Representative Rate of the Informal Market (TRMI), the benchmark indicator for the informal exchange rate in Cuba, which the regime has labeled as "financial terrorism." Díaz-Canel has publicly joined the attacks against the media outlet, in a systematic campaign that includes website blocking, hacking, and state-sponsored defamation campaigns.
In June 2026, Nieves received the Knight International Journalism Award precisely for the TRMI and for "La Travesía," a database of missing Cuban migrants. This recognition highlights the international impact of the media's work despite the regime's pressure.
At least 23 independent Cuban media sites remain blocked on the island, according to Freedom House and Digital Guardians. In 2025, there were 768 violations of press freedom in Cuba, an increase of 54.7% compared to 2024, according to the Cuban Institute for Freedom of Expression and Press (ICLEP).
The media outlet announced that it will document the attack from this Saturday to report it to international organizations defending press freedom and reaffirmed its stance in the face of pressure: "As we did then, we will overcome this new attempt to censor us." The statement concluded with a declaration that summarizes the team's position: "Our commitment to our audience remains unchanged: we will continue to inform."
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