Twitter Blocked the Account of Corpoelec, Venezuela’s State Electric Power Company
The official Twitter account @CORPOELECinfo of the Corporación Eléctrica Nacional (Corpoelec), Venezuela’s state-owned public electric utility, was “temporarily restricted” on the aforementioned social network for reasons that are unknown. The restriction has prevented it from publishing information since April 29. Apparently, it would be part of the series of restrictions that the US company made a few days ago, also affecting the accounts of three Venezuelan media and several public entities.
The blockade on the Corpoelec account on Twitter mainly harms the Venezuelan citizens who use this account to keep informed about the load management plans (electrical service interruptions) of the company in numerous cities throughout the country, as part of the contingency while the national electrical system recovers from the attacks that occurred last March, which left most of the country without electric service for several days.
Citizens used the @CORPOELECinfo account as one of the mechanisms to report service failures, and the account was also used to inform the public when these problems were being resolved. However, since April 29 at 7:02 pm, no new messages have been posted.
On April 30, the accounts of the newspapers Correo del Orinoco ( @correoorinoco ), the Diario Vea ( @DiarioVEAVen ) and the television station ViVe Televisión ( @ViVetvoficial ), as well as the accounts of the Ministry of Popular Power for Women ( @MinMujer ); of the Ministry of Popular Power for Education (@ mppeducacion ) and the Ministry of Popular Power for Petroleum ( @MinPetroleoVE ) were suspended.
The suspension of this and other accounts occurred before or during an attempted coup on April 30, led by politicians Juan Guaidó and Leopoldo López, supported by a small group of soldiers.
Translated by JRE\EF
