Maduro attacks X and WhatsApp as pressure mounts to back his victory in Venezuela – Twin Cities

By REGINA GARCIA CANO

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro is trying to achieve something that seems impossible in the South American country: wean people off WhatsApp and X.

Maduro’s announcement this week of a 10-day ban on access to Venezuela’s X portal is the latest in a series of moves by his government to curtail the exchange of information among those expressing doubts about his victory in the July 28 presidential election.

It also reveals that every aspect of Venezuelan government functioning is subject to the needs and desires of Maduro, who in May demanded his cabinet retweet his posts and on Thursday ordered the national telecommunications agency to block access to Channel X.

“X out for 10 days! Elon Musk out!” Maduro said on Thursday, announcing his decision to temporarily block the social network and accusing its owner, tech billionaire Elon Musk, of using it to promote hate following Venezuela’s disputed presidential election.

Maduro, who also accused the social media site of being used by his opponents to foment political unrest, gave the company 10 days to “provide documents” but did not provide any additional details.

The government’s central communications office did not respond Friday to an Associated Press request for a copy of the resolution Maduro said he signed authorizing the ban on X.

X’s press office did not immediately respond to an AP email seeking comment.

Electoral authorities have declared Maduro the winner of the highly anticipated election, but unlike previous presidential elections, they have yet to provide detailed voting results to back up their claims. Meanwhile, the opposition has revealed that it has collected result sheets from more than 80% of the 30,000 electronic voting machines across the country, showing he lost by a margin of more than 2 to 1.

The dispute has drawn thousands of people to the streets in protest, to which the government has responded with force. Security forces have since detained more than 2,000 people for demonstrating against Maduro or challenging his victory. The Venezuelan human rights organization Provea has recorded 24 deaths.

After the election, Musk used X to accuse the self-proclaimed socialist leader of “massive election fraud,” drawing Maduro’s ire and a challenge to “fight.” It’s a reversal for Maduro, who, aware of the crucial role social media plays in news consumption in Venezuela, told cabinet members in a televised meeting in May to support him on social media.

“Who among you doesn’t follow my accounts?” he said. “You’re ashamed to raise your hand, aren’t you? All of you? And why don’t you like me? Why don’t you like or retweet? Why? It doesn’t cost anything, it takes a second, boom!”

A month later, he promoted an Instagram post in which the song’s chorus urged people to “Give Nicolás a like, give Nicolás a like,” and the caption included the hashtag #NicoLike.

Fran Monroy, a Venezuelan telecommunications expert, said Maduro’s decision to block Channel X is an escalation of censorship that began several years ago.

“Venezuelan news from the main TV networks is not watched because it does not reflect the country’s news reality,” he said. “So what is left? The rise of YouTube channels, which were very powerful in terms of disseminating information, social networks and in some ways virtual news or private messaging apps.”

Earlier this week, Maduro attacked the messaging app WhatsApp owned by Meta, publicly deleting it from his phone during his weekly TV show and calling on supporters to switch to rival app Telegram.

WhatsApp plays an integral role in everyday life in Venezuela. Millions of people use it not only to chat with friends and family, but also to make appointments with beauty salons and doctors, buy food, order taxis, send and receive household chores, and hire and fire employees.

Even the ruling party’s vast network of local leaders relies on the app to distribute subsidized food, monitor attendance at pro-government events and coordinate voter mobilization efforts on election days, including July 28.

The country’s main opposition forces used it to communicate with campaign volunteers, local organizers and others who contributed to the Herculean task of securing election result sheets.

“Maduro has changed dramatically, from trying to buy support and mobilize his base with propaganda … to recognizing that neither of those strategies will work,” said Will Freeman, a research fellow in Latin American studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. “Because he relies so heavily on repression to stay in power, he has an incentive to limit communication so that Venezuelans and the world see as little of what’s going to happen as possible.”

It was unclear Friday how the government was implementing the X ban. Some users in the capital, Caracas, were still able to access and refresh the app on their phones without using a virtual private network.

Horacio Melendez, however, was among those who could no longer update posts on the app. Sitting outside a church before heading to work, he said he had never posted anti-government messages on his account, which he uses mainly to read what others share. He expressed skepticism about the reasons for the ban.

“That’s where the news is,” Melendez said. “People, citizens, are sharing a lot of information about what’s going on. I imagine it has something to do with the ban as well; it’s not just about Mr. Elon.”

Originally published: August 8, 2024 at 10:56 PM