After decades of oppression by the Castro regime, the Cuban people are on the cusp of rebellion. This month’s protests against the island’s communist dictatorship are the largest in the country since the turn of the century, and with the internet, they’re certainly unlike any other in the nation’s history.

Cubans have only had modern and mobile internet (as opposed to older, broadband web) for the past few years. And even with expanded access, the Cuban government has maintained intense surveillance and control over mobile and online communications, as evidenced by the government’s temporary shutdown of internet service amid the protests. But thanks to social media and the unrelenting passion of a people tired of consistent and considerable persecution, the communist stranglehold over the country seems more tested than ever before.