Historic poll: Facebook is 20x more popular than Twitter in Cuba

By Fusion Staff | April 8, 2015 | 6:03pm

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More Cubans have cellphones than landlines, but they’re not using them to surf the web. Although 61 percent of Cubans are walking around with cellphones in their pockets, no one has a data plan and only 16 percent of Cubans have access to Internet, according to a new Bendixen & Amandi Poll for Univision Noticias – Fusion in collaboration with The Washington Post.

The poll, the largest and most comprehensive independent survey in Cuba in more than 50 years, found that only 28 percent of those who have Internet access go online everyday.

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Most Internet users say they connect at cyber cafes (43 percent), at work (34 percent) or at their school or university (22 percent). Only one-fifth of the 16 percent of the population online connects to the Internet at home, according to the poll.

Social media is also slow to catch on. Only 40 percent of those who go online say they use social media, while 58 percent say they don’t. Those using social media are mostly on Facebook, which is by far the most popular social platform among Cubans. More than 90 percent of Cubans say they use Facebook the most, while only 4 percent answered Twitter, and 3 percent said the use email.

Not surprisingly, most Cubans — 77 percent —who use social media say they do so to communicate with people abroad, according to the poll.

The survey, conducted on island by local pollsters under the direction of the Miami-based firm Bendixen & Amandi and without the consent of the Cuban government, interviewed 1,200 Cubans across the island between March 17-27. The data offers a unique insight into public opinion on an island where reliable polling is notoriously difficult and where 75 percent of Cubans claim they have to be careful what they say in public. It’s the first survey of Cuban public opinion since the Dec. 17 announcement of bilateral efforts to normalize U.S.-Cuban relations. (For more on methodology, click here.)

The poll claims a 2.8 percent margin of error and a 95 percent confidence level.

Read full poll results here.