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From Venezuela and made by Venezuelan Chavistas
Elon Musk, left, and Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro, right, have been trading insults since the billionaire began to actively promote far-right violence in Venezuela after the presidential elections. Photo: Financial Times montage/Getty Images.
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro announced that the National Telecommunications Commission (Conatel) will remove Elon Musk’s social media service X from the grid of platforms available in Venezuela for 10 days starting this Friday. This decision was made so that the US corporation can present documents required by Conatel in an administrative procedure initiated after the violent riots that occurred shortly after the presidential elections in Venezuela on Monday, July 29.
“X is out of Venezuela for 10 days,” President Maduro said on Thursday, August 8. “In Venezuela, there is a law, a Constitution, institutions, a State, and a people that must be respected.”
“I have signed a decree with a proposal drafted by Conatel. Enough is enough. We have to defeat the cyber coup. Someday, sooner rather than later, Venezuelan social media platforms will be born. We defend the truth. They want a cyber coup,” he said, referring to social media platform owners Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg, who, personally or via their corporations, played a visible and belligerent role during the violence reported in Venezuela the day following the elections.
The Venezuelan president also highlighted that social media platform X was used to spread hate messages and fake news. “Elon Musk has violated all the rules of social media platform X, which used to be Twitter, inciting hatred, fascism, civil war, death, confrontation between Venezuelans, violating the laws of Venezuela,” he said, explaining the decision to block access to Elon Musk’s social media platform for 10 days.
President Maduro claims that these individuals are attempting a cyber coup against Venezuela. “We are still being attacked,” he said from the Miraflores Palace upon greeting the massive demonstration of Chavistas representing communes and social movements this Thursday to defend peace and express their support for President Maduro.
Maduro also reiterated that WhatsApp, owned by Mark Zuckerberg, is a spy platform, stating the importance of deleting this social media platform, “it’s time to free ourselves from WhatsApp. No one will silence me. I will confront the espionage of the technological empire.”
WhatsApp worked with Colombian drug traffickers to attack Venezuela
President Maduro said that, for months, the messaging platform WhatsApp worked with Colombian drug traffickers to spy on Venezuela and carry out a fascist plan. Days earlier, he explained phone calls intimidating and threatening Chavista grassroots leaders were made on WhatsApp, with some leaders being killed during the opposition violence.
The president said that Venezuela is fighting a cyber coup by the imperialist technological conglomerate, which also attacked Venezuela’s entire electoral system.
In this regard, President Maduro said, “Whatsapp gave them all the addresses in Venezuela, and they prepared together with Colombian drug traffickers for months to threaten Venezuelan society so that the [Chavista] people would be paralyzed with terror.”
Venezuelans were threatened through WhatsApp, so President Maduro reiterated his message to spread awareness to the people to stop using this platform, which is owned by the transnational corporation Meta.
He added that over 70 countries have banned the use of WhatsApp by public officials, military personnel, and police officers because “it spies on the world… I will continue to expose this. No one will silence me,” President Maduro said.
(Alba Ciudad) with Orinoco Tribune content
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
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