Cuba's digital landscape has grown darker, both literally and figuratively. Freedom House's newly released Freedom on the Net 2026 report gives the island a score of just 19 out of 100, a two-point drop from last year that erases a brief uptick and cements Cuba among the world's most restrictive environments for online expression.
The annual report, titled "Seismic Shifts on the Global Internet" and covering June 2025 through May 2026, places Cuba firmly in the "Not Free" category - ahead only of Russia's 16 points among the 38 countries surveyed, and trailing far behind China, Iran, and Myanmar, each at 9. The ranking reflects three underlying measures: a dismal 5 out of 25 for obstacles to access, 9 out of 35 for content restrictions, and 5 out of 40 for violations of user rights.
Power Failures Cripple Connectivity
Much of Cuba's decline traces to infrastructure collapse rather than deliberate censorship alone, though the two are increasingly intertwined. Chronic nationwide blackouts have devastated the country's telecommunications backbone. According to figures cited in the report, outages left roughly 47.5 percent of mobile radio bases and 56.5 percent of telecommunications cabinets inoperative, since backup batteries typically provide only a few hours of reserve power before networks go dark.
The consequences became starkly visible in March 2026, when a major blackout triggered a 65 percent collapse in internet traffic nationwide. Full recovery took roughly 29 hours - a striking illustration of how fragile and centralized Cuba's digital infrastructure remains, and how easily an energy crisis can double as a communications blackout.
The Rising Price of Staying Online
Access has also become dramatically more expensive. In May 2025, ETECSA, the state telecommunications monopoly and Cuba's only mobile provider, capped peso-based reloads at 360 CUP per month, effectively steering users toward packages priced in foreign currency. Freedom House estimates this shift increased the real cost of mobile internet by a factor of thirteen - a burden that falls hardest on ordinary Cubans with limited access to hard currency, and one that functions as a de facto barrier to connectivity even without explicit content blocking.
Prosecutions and Surveillance Targeting Online Speech
Beyond infrastructure, the report documents intensifying legal repression against social media activity. Freedom House lowered Cuba's score on the ability to mobilize and campaign online after tracking several harsh sentences handed down for organizing protests, including one fourteen-year prison term. Activist Alexander Verdecia received seven years for social media posts; a journalist was sentenced to six years for protest-related activity, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists; and in May 2026, Yasser García López was sentenced to five years over Facebook posts.
The report further notes that ETECSA "apparently facilitated" the hacking of accounts and communications belonging to activists, opposition figures, and independent journalists - a finding that pushed the relevant indicator to zero. Freedom House is careful to describe this as its own assessment rather than a judicial determination, but it points to a structural vulnerability: state control over network infrastructure and verification messages could allow authorities to intercept authentication codes used to secure personal accounts. A January 2026 study by Prisoners Defenders, drawing on 200 testimonies, found that 98.5 percent of participants reported reprisals connected to digital activity, and nearly half said their accounts had been accessed without authorization.
At least 23 independent Cuban news sites remain blocked, including 14ymedio, CubaNet, Diario de Cuba, El Toque, and CubaHeadlines, restricting Cubans' access to information not filtered through state channels.
Part of a Broader Global Slide
Cuba's trajectory mirrors a worldwide pattern. Freedom House reports that global internet freedom has declined for sixteen consecutive years, with conditions worsening in 16 of the 38 countries assessed this cycle and improving in only eight. "Authoritarian regimes are reshaping the internet as a system of control, deciding who can connect, what they can see, and if they can be heard," said Kian Vesteinsson, the report's author and Freedom House's Deputy Director of Research. "After 16 years of decline, democracies must lead the charge for a free and open internet. Dictators invest in keeping people disconnected. We must invest in making censorship fail."