WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The social network set up as a form of Twitter in Cuba was not designed to foment dissent against Havana’s communist government, the head of the US agency behind it said yesterday.
Rajiv Shah, the administrator of the US Agency for Inter-national Development (USAID), appear-ed before a Senate subcommittee to discuss the agency’s $20 billion budget but some of the questioning focused on the social network ZunZuneo that USAID launched in Cuba in 2010.
Last week, a lengthy report by the Associated Press said ZunZuneo, which took its name from Cuban slang for a hummingbird’s tweet and was similar to the US-based Twitter network, had been set up as a tool for mobilizing demonstrations in Cuba.
