The White House has reportedly denied claims that the US foreign aid organization designed "Cuban Twitter" to trigger political unrest in Cuba.
The White House said that the program was 'not covert' but rather a "discreet" form of humanitarian assistance.
According to the Guardian, Attempts by Barack Obama's administration to downplay the nature of ZunZuneo, a social-media website it hoped would facilitate protests in Cuba, are at odds with a major investigation by the Associated Press published on Thursday.
White House press secretary Jay Carney said that it was necessary for USAID to be discreet in "non-permissive environments the secret social-media initiative was "not a covert programme", the Guardian reported.
Carey said that it was a development-assistance programme, adding that he was not aware of individuals in the White House who were involved.
The messaging network called ZunZuneo - slang for a Cuban hummingbird's tweet - as a play on "Twitter" attracted some 40,000 Cuban subscribers at its peek and was closed in 2012, after around two years, the report added.
