MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Maduro bans X from Venezuela for 10 days

After 10 days a final measure is to be taken, according to Maduro's announcement

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro Thursday banned the social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter) for 10 days. He also accused its owner Elon Musk of “inciting hatred” in the South American country. Maduro has also singled out WhatsApp, Instagram, and TikTok as “multipliers of hate”.

“I have signed a point of account with the proposal made with [National Telecommunications Commission] Conatel,” to “remove the social network X, formerly known as Twitter, for 10 days from circulation in Venezuela,” Maduro said from the Miraflores Palace.

He also accused Musk of inciting hatred and fascism amid an alleged attack on his re-election announcement on July 28, which has not been recognized by several countries worldwide.

“Elon Musk is the owner of X and has violated all the rules of the social network Twitter itself. He has incited hatred, civil war, death, and confrontation. In Venezuela there is law and we are going to enforce it,” Maduro also stressed. The President also explained that the ban on X was imposed to “make the laws be respected.”

“X is out of Venezuela for 10 days, so that they can present the necessary documents and to establish the definitive administrative measure, but enough is enough, enough of trying to sow violence, hatred, of trying to attack Venezuela from abroad,” he added. In his view, Musk was part of a “cyber coup d'état.”

“Someday, sooner rather than later, the new Venezuelan social networks will be born” to free the country “from those people,” Maduro also pledged. “I was not born on the day of cowards... We have to defeat the cybernetic, fascist, and criminal coup d'état,” Maduro insisted just a few days after urging Venezuelans to delete WhatsApp from their mobile phones and switch over to Telegram.

In addition, the so-called “comanditos” (little commandos) created by opposition leader María Corina Machado to monitor the elections on July 28 used to communicate through WhatsApp and post their messages on X, it was reported.

Given the current political turmoil, the government has been said to have launched what was dubbed ”Operation Tun (random)” where bypassers were detained and their cell phones examined in search of controversial WhatsApp or X content. So far, 2,229 people have been arrested since protests began following the alleged fraud whereby Maduro intends to remain in office through the 2025-2031 term.

The pro-government National Electoral Council (CNE) has not yet released the minutes for each polling table while Machado released the ones in her possession which would prove that Edmundo González Urrutia beat Maduro by 67% of the vote against 30%.