Venezuela’s Maduro, Facing National Uprising, Bans Twitter for Ten Days

Venezuela’s socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro announced on Thursday that he would ban the social media platform Twitter (or “X”) in the country, accusing its owner Elon Musk of inciting “hate, civil war, and death.”

Maduro, during a rally with his sympathizers, said that the proposal to ban Twitter came from the National Commission of Telecommunications (Conatel), the Venezuelan government entity that regulates all telecommunications in the country — and which acts as the Maduro regime’s censorship enforcement agency.

The socialist dictator claimed that the ban on X will last “ten days” and that it has given that same amount of time to the social media platform to “present” documentation that Conatel is demanding. Maduro did not specify what documents Conatel has requested.

“The social network that was called Twitter, X. Elon Musk is the owner of X and has violated all the rules, all the rules of the Twitter social network  itself, today known as X – all of them, and has violated inciting hatred, fascism, civil war, death, confrontation of Venezuelans, has violated all the laws of Venezuela,” Maduro said.

“In Venezuela there is a law, and we are going to enforce the law, that is why I have signed a letter with the proposal made by Conatel who has decided to remove the social network X, formerly known as Twitter, from circulation in Venezuela for ten days so that they can present their arguments. X out of Venezuela for ten days,” he continued.

Maduro also announced through his Twitter account that he was banning Twitter.

“Get out, Elon Musk!” Maduro said, claiming that “no one will shut me up, I will face the espionage of the technological empire.”

Netblocks, a London-based firm that monitors internet access worldwide, reported that access to Twitter began to be restricted on Venezuela’s internet service providers in the evening hours of Thursday. VE sin Filtro (“Venezuela without filters”), an initiative that monitors the Maduro regime’s censorship and assists Venezuelans in bypassing it, also confirmed the access restrictions. Venezuelan citizens have begun bypassing the ban with the use of Virtual Private Networks and other censorship-overriding methods.

The “ten day” ban on Twitter is part of Maduro’s brutal repression campaign against dissents and protesters following the July 28 sham presidential election, which Venezuela’s socialist-controlled electoral authorities claim Maduro “won.” The sham election has been widely called into question by several countries and international organizations. The Venezuelan opposition has accused Maduro of attempting to steal the election, claiming that they are in possession of sufficient vote tallies that can demonstrate their candidate, Edmundo González, defeated Maduro by a landslide.

The situation has led to nationwide peaceful protests, to which Maduro has responded by deploying police, national guard, and colectivos armed socialist gangs to brutalize dissidents. At least 24 reported deaths have been registered by non-government organizations as a result of the Maduro regime’s repression of the protesters.

The ruling socialists have also reactivated “Operation Knock Knock,” a persecution campaign that hunts down dissidents in their homes, forcing them to “confess” their “crimes” and issue “public apologies” to Maduro. Additionally, the regime’s social media platforms and applications such as VenApp have been retrofitted with features to allow users to report dissidents so the regime’s security forces can “go against them.”

Maduro has claimed that Venezuelan security forces have detained over 2,000 individuals, promising to soon send them to “reeducation camps” in prisons that the regime emptied of its inmates throughout late 2023.

Maduro and Musk, a sympathizer and close collaborator of Maduro’s patron regime in China, have repeatedly attacked each other in the days following the July 28 sham election. Musk accused Maduro of commiting electoral fraud, while Maduro accused Musk of being part of a purported “international Zionism” coup plot against his socialist regime, which has ruled Venezuela since 1999. Maduro has been at the head of the Venezuelan socialist regime since 2013 following the death of his predecessor, late socialist dictator Hugo Chávez.

The ban on Twitter comes days after Maduro announced he would “break ties” with the WhatsApp messaging platform, developed by Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta. Maduro asked his followers to “voluntarily” remove themselves from the application, widely used in Venezuela and across Latin America.

Maduro, without providing proof that substantiates his accusations, claimed WhatsApp is being used by foreign interests to “threaten” members and sympathizers of his regime after it allegedly “handed over” a list of Venezuelan users of the platform to “terrorists.” While Maduro claimed to delete WhatsApp from his personal phone, access to the application remains unrestricted at press time.

Similarly to Twitter, the regime recently restricted access to the encrypted messaging app Signal. The application’s “censorship circumvention” features presently allow the messaging platform to function within Venezuelan territory.

A group of socialist lawmakers announced this week that they are preparing a bill to further regulate social media in Venezuela. Socialist lawmaker Imarú González claimed that the objective of the regulatory bill is to  “review or create a norm” that regulates the use of social media in Venezuela in view of their “growing negative impact” on “children and adolescents” and “the violence unleashed on these digital platforms.”

Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.