The US thinks it can invent a Cuban Spring? Puh-leez, say Internet freedom scholars.

An arm of the US government seeking to destabilize the Castro regime in Cuba has taken covert actions to overthrow the government there. No, that's not a line out of a Cold War history book. The US Agency for International Development created a fake version of Twitter for Cubans to use in hopes of fomenting what the Associated Press calls a "Cuban Spring" that could, according to one of 1,000 pages of US Agency for International Development (USAID) documents, "renegotiate the balance of power between the state and society."

The plan was to bring Cubans onto the service, called ZunZuneo, then begin feeding them political content designed to incite huge protests reminiscent of 2011's democratic uprisings in the Middle East, according to the AP. It all sounds rather implausible at a time when the United States is trying to avoid embroiling itself in places, such as Syria and Ukraine. But the program actually exists. Technology can facilitate organizing. But it can't overthrow governments, much less on a timetable of your choosing. That USAID failed to appreciate such an important lesson -- from the most up-to-date evidence available -- seems surprising for an agency that specializes in international development. It also raises questions about why it still (reportedly) forged ahead with the program, and why it kept it a secret.