“Personal” Reasons for the Urgent Need for a Law

Last July 12th, a friend of mine called me in despair: “please, my favorite Ciberclaria (NT: derogatory term used to name people defending the Revolution on social networks), take care of yourself. Things are going south! Some people are posting a list with the photo of all those using the banner Matanzas no está sola (Matanzas is not alone), to hunt them and do bad things to them.”

Since the day before, people who love me did not stop calling me, including my mother, who is not in social networks but found out about the “allegedly” events occurring in Havana.

And me, who am I? How many people read my posts? Just a few. However, I was the target of direct public and private threats and attacks.

It has been tougher for other more popular colleagues, musicians, plastic artists, celebrities who dare to say and defend their thinking in their Facebook profiles. Celebrities with a private life, which was compromised, exposed, distorted, and attacked on behalf of the “freedom of speech.”

The Earth continued to rotate on its imaginary line and days passed by. Haters and trolls did not stop. Nor the calls from people asking me to step aside and care for myself stopped. That I should think about what they could do to my children. That we were not facing a decent opposition, but a call to criminality and vandalism.

I had blocked just a few users to that point. I have not met almost none of them in real life. Nonetheless, it was war and I had to defend myself from those “who were directly threatening or attacking me or any of my friends,” I said to myself. But suddenly, I saw myself blocking and unfriending users. The lynching seemed unstoppable and our only source to face it was: the blocking button.

Is it my freedom of speech less valuable than others’? For the sake of my children, I will not even ask. It is obvious that it is not a priority for those who, after joining a hypocrite SOS, tried to arrange a military intervention for us. Even in war, you must have dignity.

The Decree-Law No.35 was an urgent need and never an obstacle to those who air their truths in both real life and virtual spaces. As a friend of mine posted in Facebook, to poison and the dagger, close the gates!

Translated by Sergio A. Paneque Díaz / CubaSí Translation Staff