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Nixon in China it may not be, but Google's chairman Eric Schmidt has reportedly visited Cuba. Cuban blog 14yomedio.com reports that Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt and other senior Googlers dropped in over the weekend to promote “the virtues of an open internet”. Freedom House's 2013 Freedom on the Net 2013 rates Cuba …

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  1. Salts

    Ah how different it is...

    in the Democratic world :-)

    “Most users can access only a government controlled intranet, rather than the global internet,”

    oh wait...

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  2. ratfox

    What about North Korea?

    I'd have thought it was ranked even lower…

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    1. Suricou Raven
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      Re: What about North Korea?

      Unranked.

      The report lists it as 'country not assessed in 2013.'

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      1. Ken Hagan Gold badge
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        Re: What about North Korea?

        Yes. Quite a number of countries are unranked, making the final league table fairly meaningless.

        In other news, England are the best football team on the planet, apart from a few who aren't listed because they are currently mucking about in Brazil.

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  3. Omniaural

    14yomedio.com?

    Is that the age of the reporters?

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  4. Dan 55 Silver badge
    WTF?

    Google writes its own laws now...

    How'd they manage to get round the ton of laws preventing US citizens travelling to Cuba and US companies trading with Cuba?

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    1. El_Fev
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      Re: Google writes its own laws now...

      Since when is there a law saying US citizens can't go to Cuba?

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      1. Dan 55 Silver badge
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        Re: Google writes its own laws now...

        Several laws since since 1960 (they keep changing).

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      2. Anonymous Coward
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        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Google writes its own laws now...

        US citizens can go there. They just can't fly directly from the US (coz there ain't no direct flights, you know?)

        Alternative travel arrangements include pleasure craft and homemade rafts.

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  5. Gis Bun

    Hmmmmm

    Always knew Schmidt was a commie.

    Maybe he'll ditch the workforce in the US and move their HQ to Havana. Cheap labour.

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  6. lpress

    Google could provide Internet access in Cuba

    Cuba has very little domestic backbone infrastructure, but they could afford to extend Internet connectivity via satellite if the US and Cuban governments would allow it:

    http://laredcubana.blogspot.com/2013/12/a-cuban-approach-to-achieving-internet.html

    Google has a geosynchronous satllite project that could serve Cuba:

    http://cis471.blogspot.com/2014/06/can-google-connect-other-three-billion.html

    My guess is that the US government would go for this, but Cuba is a tougher sell.

    Some are alleging that this reported visit is a hoax, but if it is not ...

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  7. DocJames

    Having been to Cuba...

    I suspect that the US government would love to go for this, but would be stymied by the insane Cuban exiles in Miami. It's pretty clear that more internet access would mean more knowledge which would lead to more democracy, and therefore a chance to get rid of an embarrassing neighbour.

    Cuba will be wary for the same reasons. They'll want it to help their economy etc but be scared of political ramifications. The government is (was - 2005) remarkably popular but there will be a massive push from the US to kick out communism if they thought they could.

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