US Built 'Cuban Twitter' to Undermine Castro Regime

The U.S. government secretly built a Cuban version of Twitter in hopes of undermining the communist Castro regime, according to an Associated Press report.

The social media network was called "ZunZuneo," Cuban slang for a hummingbird's tweet.

The mission was to bypass Cuba's stranglehold on the Internet to reach Cuban citizens and spark dissent.

The covert project was launched in 2009, lasted more than two years and drew 40,000 unsuspecting Cuban subscribers.

Behind the scenes, ZunZuneo's computers were storing and analyzing subscribers' messages and other demographic information, including gender, age, "receptiveness" and "political tendencies."

Eventually organizers were planning to push out text messages designed to trigger political unrest.

But the program never got that far. The plug was pulled after the U.S. team realized the Cuban government was trying to break into their system.

An AP investigation reveals the network was created by the U.S. Agency for International Development. It was built using secret shell companies and financed through foreign banks.

"There will be absolutely no mention of United States government involvement," according to a 2010 memo from Mobile Accord Inc., one of the project's creators. "This is absolutely crucial for the long-term success of the service and to ensure the success of the Mission."

The estimated $1.6 million spent on ZunZuneo was publicly earmarked for an unspecified project in Pakistan, public government data shows, but those documents don't reveal where the funds were actually spent.