Chrome Becomes “Legal” in Cuba

Chrome Becomes "Legal" in Cuba / Yoani Sanchez
Posted on August 21, 2014

Yesterday, the giant Google authorized the download of their well-known
browser Chrome by Cuban internauts. The announcement came just two
months after several of the American company's executives visited Havana
and saw for themselves the problems we suffer accessing the vast World
Wide Web.

Among the topics of conversation between several members of 14ymedio and
Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, were precisely these restrictions. Hence,
our satisfaction on knowing that the opinions of citizens interested in
the free flow of information and technology influenced the elimination
of this prohibition. An obstacle that, while it was in effect, affected
the Cuban population more than a Government that is among the greatest
Internet predators in the world.

During their trip to Cuba the four Google directors not only suffered
the inconvenience of the digital sites censored by the Cuban
authorities, and the high prices to connect from public places, but also
experienced the restrictions imposed by their own company on Cuban
Internet users. If must have been a particularly bitter pill to swallow
to try to download Google Chrome and see the screen appear saying, "This
service is not available in your country."

We Cuban user, fortunately, had not expected the American company to be
allowed to access the program from a national Internet Provider. Google
Chrome, along with Mozilla Firefox and the controversial Internet
Explorer, have been the most used browsers in our country. It simply
required someone to bring an installer, after downloading it for free on
a trip abroad, for it to pass from hand to hand—or flash memory stick to
flash memory stick— and to be installed on hundreds (thousands?) of
computers.

What has happened now is that we have gone from being illegal users to
joining the brotherhood of more than 750 million people around the world
using this program in an authorized manner. Services such as Google
Analytics, Google Earth and the Android App Store are now awaiting a
similar thaw. Hopefully we will not have to wait from another visit to
Cuba by directors of Google for these limitations to be eliminated!

21 August 2014

Source: Chrome Becomes "Legal" in Cuba / Yoani Sanchez | Translating
Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/chrome-becomes-legal-in-cuba-yoani-sanchez/