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11/01/09 - Reuters (London) - Cubans say access to online market site is
blocked

By Esteban Israel

HAVANA (Reuters) - A popular website of classified ads that has given Cubans
a taste of the free market has been blocked on the communist-run island,
Internet users said.

Cubans trying to access Revolico.com, which says it has more than 1.5
million page views a month, are being diverted to the search engine
Google.com.

"If I type the address and press 'enter,' I get redirected. If I Google it
and click, I get redirected. What is going on?," asked Sandra a 30-year-old
government employee who, like several others interviewed, did not give their
full names.

Cuban computer experts say an Internet content filter is preventing access
to the Craigslist-like site, which has emerged as a booming virtual free
market in the socialist nation with a tightly controlled economy where
consumer goods tend to be scarce and expensive.

On Revolico.com, Cubans with access to the Internet can buy and sell
anything from computer memory sticks to a 1950 Plymouth.

"There you can find all the things the government sells you at brutal prices
and freely pick exactly what you want," said Alberto, who recently used
Revolico.com to buy a computer that was not available in the stores.

The Internet in Cuba is controlled by the state monopoly ETECSA, a joint
venture between the Cuban government and Telecom Italia.

Whether the state was blocking the site was unknown but Cuban authorities
have in the past reportedly prohibited access to pages they consider
"counter-revolutionary," including blogs critical of the socialist system.

"Apparently someone doesn't like people buying and selling stuff. But there
is always a way," said Luis, a computer aficionado

who has been circulating an e-mail giving directions on how to bypass the
filter.

It is not clear where Revolico.com is based but it is hosted out of servers
in the United States. An administrator contacted by Reuters outside of Cuba
said the site is aware of the filter problem and working to resolve it.

INTERNET FILTERING

The use of content filters is growing around the world, according to The
OpenNet Initiative (opennet.net), an academic program monitoring online
censorship.

"We have just finished our testing in 71 countries and have found evidence
of content filtering in close to 40 countries," said Ronald Deibert,
director of the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto and co-founder of
The OpenNet Initiative.

Countries like China or Iran use filters to prevent access to sites viewed
as politically challenging. Some Western democracies say they use them to
block websites with child pornography.

Official statistics show that 13 percent of Cuba's 11 million people have
access to the Internet and most of those only to e-mail and a local intranet
of approved sites. Cuba blames the long-standing U.S. trade embargo against
the island for its limited access.

The filters on Revolico.com come after Cuba recently blocked the use of the
free call service Skype.com in what industry sources said was a purely
commercial decision to keep Skype from cutting into revenues for
long-distance calls through the phone system.

Internet service providers in other countries such as China, the United Arab
Emirates and even the United States have taken similar steps in the past.

The U.S. trade embargo, imposed since 1962 to undermine the Cuban
government, also has caused U.S. companies such as Microsoft Corp and Google
Inc to not provide instant messaging services in Cuba because they say U.S.
regulations prohibit required downloads.

The Obama administration now is saying it wants the companies to resume the
service because they foster communications and democracy.

(Editing by Jeff Franks and Bill Trott)