Google Launches Servers In Cuba: Can The Internet Giant Catalyze Change In The Communist Stronghold?

Former President Barack Obama opened up the U.S.’s diplomatic channels with Cuba last year. He also announced that Google would be setting up its servers in the country, providing Cubans with an alternative to the state run internet service provider.

Read: As Obama Visits Cuba, These Business Execs And Entrepreneurs Are Following, Eager To Explore Opportunities

The company has finally made the leap and become the first internet company to set up servers in the country — the company inked a deal with Cuba’s national telecom authority ETECSA in December to set up Wi-Fi and broadband. The servers switched on by the company, Wednesday, are a part of the Google Global Cache (GGC), its global network, which stores content such as viral videos and trending articles for quick access.

The company is expected to gradually expand its operations in Cuba and bring large-scale internet access to the island.

On the face of it, this might sound like a small development — so what if Google is setting up operations in just another country, right?

Well, here’s the thing — Cuba is one of the five communist countries left in the world, others being China, North Korea, Vietnam and Laos. But the truth is, in practice North Korea is a dictatorship and others are semi-capitalist. Cuba is the strictest in adhering to Principles of Communism, an 1847 book written by Friedrich Engels, which defines what communism is and how society and economic systems should put it in practice.

Google getting a foot in the door in the communist stronghold exposes its people to the internet to get a different perspective from what they have been conditioned to.

The internet and increased access to it has spurned changes in many places, whether it be the Arab Spring in the Middle East, which spread like wildfire after protests started in Tunisia in December 2010.

Read: Egypt's Hosni Mubarak Faces Retrial Over 2011 Arab Spring Killings

China on the other hand, forced the company to quit the country in 2010. The company shut down operations after it found that the Gmail accounts of Chinese human activists had been targeted as a part of an attack from inside the country.

At the very least, it will be interesting to see what Cubans think about their government’s policies, how they compare to the rest of the world and what they think of the U.S., the way they would get to know it through the internet.