Cuba’s overseas minister on Wednesday mentioned the United States was behind protests over human and civil rights deliberate for November 15 within the communist-run nation, and alleged US-based social media platform Facebook was serving to to advertise them.

Dissidents on the island, organized beneath a Facebook group referred to as Archipielago, in September requested permission to conduct the rallies. Cuban authorities denied their request, alleging protesters have been working with the United States to overthrow the federal government.

Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez reiterated these allegations earlier than a gathering of overseas diplomats in Havana, saying the United States had helped to underwrite and set up the protests in a bid to destabilize the federal government.

“US policy…is doomed to failure. It is unfeasible. It hasn’t worked for 60 years. It does not work now (…) and it will not work in the future,” he mentioned.

Rodriguez particularly referred to as out the position of Facebook, saying dissidents organized in teams on the platform had violated the social media platform’s personal insurance policies, “altering logarithms, altering the geolocation mechanism to simulate the massive presence in Cuba of people with accounts that are known to reside outside our country, primarily in Florida and in the US territory.”

Rodriguez mentioned these practices violated each US and worldwide legislation.

“As has already happened, Facebook could perfectly be, with strict adherence to the laws, sued for these practices against Cuba.”

Neither the US State Department nor Facebook, which lately modified its firm title to Meta, instantly responded to a Reuters request for remark.

The current growth of internet entry in Cuba has given new methods for folks to share criticisms and mobilize on-line.

The Facebook group behind the protests, Archipielago, says it has 31,501 members, greater than half of which it says reside in Cuba.

Cuban dissident chief Yunior Garcia, of Archipielago, couldn’t be instantly reached for remark.

Cuba’s authorities has a monopoly on telecommunications, and often blames trolls and overseas brokers on social media for stirring unrest.

The island nation suffered disruptions in entry to web and social media following massive anti-government rallies in July, in an obvious bid to dampen additional calls to protest .

Rodriguez additionally advised diplomats that the United States final week had provided Cuba a million doses of vaccine towards coronavirus. He criticized the supply as “opportunistic” and irrelevant, on condition that Cuba has already vaccinated almost its whole inhabitants with home-grown medicine.

Instead, he made a counter-offer, suggesting that Cuba and the United States every supply a donation of their respective vaccines to a rustic extra in want of them.

© Thomson Reuters 2021