1M Cubans use U.S. software to skirt government's social media blackouts
17 July 2021
More than 1 million people in Cuba every day are using an anti-censorship tool supported by the U.S. government to circumvent their own government's social media blackouts, Bloomberg reports.
The big picture: Censorship-circumvention software company Psiphon Inc. has facilitated the transfer of over 600 terabytes of data from users in Cuba since Sunday, per Bloomberg.
- Psiphon receives funding from the Open Technology Fund, a U.S. government nonprofit that supports global internet freedom technologies.
Driving the news: Cuba limited access to some social media and messaging apps following anti-government protests that started last Sunday Axios' Ina Fried reports.
- President Biden said Thursday that the United States is looking into whether it is able to restore internet access that was shut down by the Cuban government.
Go deeper: Open Technology Fund sues administration for $20M in missing funds
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.