Cuba, On the Path to Digital Sovereignty?

On January 16th, the website Cubadebate published an article by Russian journalist Víktor Ternovsky, in an installment of "Cuadernos de un moscovita," a collaboration between Cubadebate and SputnikMundo, titled "Rusia entra en el privilegiado club de países con soberanía digital plena" (Russia enters the privileged club of countries with full digital sovereignty). According to the article, this condition had previously only been achieved by China and the United States.

To reach this objective, Russia has for several years developed various platforms and services widely used by its population. Examples include Yandex, born as a web search engine and transformed into a service ecosystem; the MIR payment system, created from national developments and infrastructure; the Russian social network VK, which has a service similar to TikTok; the Rutube online video platform, an alternative to YouTube; the Gosuslugi state services platform, which allows access to services and administrative procedures; and the MAX national instant messaging service, available since 2025 and already boasting 85 million users.

Advancing on the path of digital security requires achieving results in three components: infrastructure, the development of proprietary technologies and applications, and the creation of a culture for their safe and responsible use. It also requires an adequate system for incident management and human resources, as well as legal provisions in this area.

I agree with a comment on the aforementioned Cubadebate article, which states: "We have also begun our sovereign path. Applications like toDus (the Cuban WhatsApp), PICTA (the Cuban YouTube), Apklis (the Cuban Android app store), and SOBERANÍA (with all the legal documents and procedures for Cuban citizens) show that it is possible to become independent in the digital context. Now we just need to use them and make them increasingly attractive."

Cuba has two digital payment gateways: Transfermóvil and Enzona. The former has more than 5.6 million active clients, an average of 46 operations per second daily, and a user experience rating of 4.75 out of 5 points. 87.6% of telephone services, 85.9% of electricity bills, and 47% of taxes are paid through this platform.

The instant messaging application toDus, operated by the company Z17, has more than 2.6 million registered users and offers various services such as creating and joining groups, subscribing to channels, organizing catalogs, product promotion, and bank operation notifications. It does not aim to compete with WhatsApp or Telegram, but to be an alternative within the Cuban digital landscape.

Picta, a Cuban YouTube, has more than 600,000 registered users. It enables live streaming of events, short videos or reels, live television, exclusive channels, downloads, advertising spaces, and a subscription system with three levels.

Regarding the Cuban app center, Apklis, it registers more than 900,000 users and allows one-time payment sales where applications are previously verified to guarantee security and functionality.

Since July 2025, the Soberanía platform has been in operation, describing more than 290 procedures and services offered by the public administration to citizens, who can manage them from the comfort of their homes. Its use shows a growing trend and has received over 121,000 visits to date.

Very few countries possess a collaborative online encyclopedia with a database of almost 280,000 articles created by Cubans. EcuRed is a social network of content, used not only by Cubans but also by people from various countries who visit the site to seek information with a decolonizing perspective. Users from Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Spain, and the United States access articles daily about history, culture, sports, science, politics, and other topics related to Cuba and the world.

If there is something to highlight, it is that these advances, still insufficient, have been achieved under the conditions of a country operating in a war economy. Nevertheless, what has been presented demonstrates that Cuba is on the path toward digital security.