Venezuela’s socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro announced on Monday that he would “break ties” with the WhatsApp messaging platform, effectively declaring it illegal to use.
Maduro accused foreign interests of using the application to threaten members and sympathizers of his authoritarian regime.
During a rally of the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), Maduro asked PSUV members to carry out a “progressive, voluntary, and radical withdrawal” of the messaging application, adding that he would replace it with the Telegram messaging app and the Chinese communication platform WeChat.
“I am going to break relations with WhatsApp because WhatsApp is being used to threaten Venezuela, and then I am going to remove my WhatsApp from my phone forever,” Maduro said during a rainy event with PSUV youth members. “Little by little, I will move my contacts to Telegram, to WeChat. Do you all understand me? It is necessary to do it. Say no to WhatsApp. Get WhatsApp out of Venezuela because there the criminals threaten the youth, the popular leaders.”
WhatsApp, which Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta developed, is the most used messaging platform in Venezuela and Latin America. The platform is not just used by individuals for communication — especially during protests — but it is also used as a medium for companies to provide sales and customer support services, as well as government agencies — including the Maduro regime — to provide services.
Maduro is accusing WhatsApp and other social media platforms, such as the Chinese application TikTok, of being “multipliers of hate and fascism” and of “infecting” some parts of Venezuelan society with “hate.” The socialist dictator and high-ranking members of his regime, such as strongman and suspected drug lord Diosdado Cabello, have made open calls for the regulation and censoring of social media and messaging platforms in Venezuela.
Maduro’s accusations against TikTok are most notable, as the socialist dictator is a notoriously avid TikTok user and has used it extensively to rehabilitate his image and “rebrand” himself into a more approachable dictator. Maduro also ordered high-ranking members of his regime to join TikTok and publish socialist propaganda in the past.
The accusations Maduro espoused against WhatsApp and other U.S. and Chinese social media platforms come days after the July 28 sham presidential election, in which the regime-controlled electoral authorities claimed Maduro “won” despite not publicly releasing any data that can demonstrate the dictator’s alleged victory.
The Venezuelan opposition accused Maduro of attempting to steal the election and published voter data, which local ballot centers allegedly provided, that showed its candidate, Edmundo González, winning against Maduro by a landslide.
The situation has led to a new wave of protests against Maduro that have been met with the socialist regime’s brutal repression. Maduro’s officials claim they have arrested more than 2,000 individuals so far, while human rights groups say they have confirmed 23 deaths, some of children and teens. The socialist dictator has also announced the opening of “re-education centers” for dissidents in prisons emptied of their inmates in 2023.
Maduro also recently claimed that “international Zionism” is trying to overthrow his government, which has ruled the nation for more than 25 years — since 1999. The “Zionists,” Maduro said, are allegedly financing an “extremist right” and using their “control of social media” and “satellites” to stage a coup.
Following his PSUV rally, Maduro “uninstalled” WhatsApp from a smartphone during his weekly television show, With Maduro Plus, declaring himself “free of WhatsApp.”
Without providing evidence to substantiate his accusations, Maduro claimed that WhatsApp users from Peru, Chile, and the United States are attacking PSUV youth members and social leaders with their families, as well as artists and athletes, police, military, and other members and sympathizers of his socialist regime.
Maduro also claimed that WhatsApp had allegedly handed over a list of Venezuelan users to “terrorists” to attack their targets.
¡Si te he visto no me acuerdo! Estoy libre de #WhatsApp, el imperialismo tecnológico que ataca #Venezuela. pic.twitter.com/3CNnhIf0sk
— Nicolás Maduro (@NicolasMaduro) August 6, 2024
“WhatsApp, technological imperialism, you’re attacking Venezuela; you were given all the lists. You’re gone, WhatsApp. If I’ve seen you, I don’t remember you,” Maduro said, using a Spanish saying.
“All five [branches of government] powers are being attacked by WhatsApp. I’m free of WhatsApp. I’m at peace, free of WhatsApp,” he added.
The WhatsApp messaging platform has been the subject of censorship in other Latin American countries in recent years. Brazilian courts that Supreme Court Justice and anti-“fake news” crusader Alexandre de Moraes led censored WhatsApp and Telegram conservative chat groups of users supportive of former President Jair Bolsonaro during the peaceful protests over current far-left President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s controversial victory over then-incumbent Bolsonaro.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
