Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro has blocked the country’s access to X for 10 days amid a public dispute with the social media platform’s owner Elon Musk and a clampdown on dissent over his disputed re-election.
Maduro has accused Musk of posting on X to promote protests triggered by the election, painting the billionaire and the unrest as part of a US-backed “fascist, imperialist” coup attempt in Venezuela.
“Elon Musk is the owner of X and has violated all the rules of the social network itself,” Maduro said in a speech on Thursday night, an extract of which was posted on his X account. “He has violated the rules by inciting hatred, fascism, civil war, death, confrontation between Venezuelans, and has violated all Venezuelan laws.”
“Get out Elon Musk!” Maduro roared in the speech, which was broadcast on state television.
Venezuela’s National Commission of Telecommunications would “remove the X social network, previously known as Twitter, out of circulation in Venezuela for 10 days”, he added.
By Friday morning, posts on X had stopped loading for users inside the country. Only those with access to VPNs were able to use the site.
The move comes amid a nationwide furore that erupted after Maduro was declared the winner of the July 28 presidential election by the government-allied National Electoral Council (CNE). The council has since refused to publish a detailed breakdown of the results.
The opposition, led by María Corina Machado, said its candidate was the winner by a margin of more than two-to-one and published thousands of voting tally receipts as evidence. The US has congratulated Edmundo González, the opposition’s main candidate, on winning the most votes.
Maduro and Musk have been trading insults since the polls, and in one exchange agreed to a fist fight. Musk has called Maduro a “clown” and a “dictator” and accused him of “major electoral fraud”.
“Elon Musk, I’m ready, I’m not afraid of you,” Maduro said in one recent broadcast. “Let’s fight, wherever you want.” Musk swiftly accepted in a post on X.
In an exchange on July 29, Maduro warned in a speech that “our new arch-enemy, the famous Elon Musk, wants to come with his rockets and an army to invade Venezuela”. Musk, who also owns rocket and spacecraft company SpaceX, responded, “Does [Maduro] have space lasers? Because I do.”
On Thursday, in response to a video of Maduro announcing the blocking of X, Musk posted: “We will singe his moustache from space!”
Brazil, Colombia and Mexico — all led by leftwing governments — on Thursday called on the CNE to publish the tallies for the disputed election.
Protests that broke out on the day after the vote were met with fierce repression. More than 2,200 protesters, regarded as “criminal terrorists”, have been arrested and sent to two prisons repurposed to house them, Maduro has said. Rights groups say at least 22 people have been killed. Fearing arrest, Machado and González are in hiding.
Maduro, a self-styled revolutionary socialist, has presided over economic collapse, deepening repression and the exodus of millions of Venezuelans since taking office in 2013.
He has also attacked social media platforms Instagram and TikTok, saying they promote “hatred and fascism”, and earlier this week he urged Venezuelans to delete WhatsApp from their phones.
With broadcast and print media under government control in Venezuela, and several independent news sites already blocked, Venezuelans often rely on social media for information and to organise.
When authorities arrested María Oropeza, an opposition campaign staffer, at her home on Tuesday night, Machado posted her address on X and urged supporters to rush to her defence. Marches have also been announced on social media.
“Blocking X is part of a strategy to sow terror and panic and restrict people from protesting or sharing information critical to the government,” said Rafael Uzcátegui, co-director of the Peace Laboratory, a Caracas-based rights group.
Musk, the most-followed person on X, has regularly used his platform to weigh in on foreign politics. In recent years he has increasingly expressed support for rightwing politicians around the globe, including former US president and current Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and Argentina’s populist leader Javier Milei.
Many of Musk’s public disputes have centred on online content moderation. The self-declared “free speech absolutist” in April labelled Brazil’s Supreme Court justice Alexandre de Moraes, an ally of leftwing President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, a “dictator” and threatened to defy his rulings blocking users found to be spreading election disinformation. He also last year accused Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of “trying to crush free speech” over a bill to regulate online streaming services.
The billionaire has in the past week launched attacks on the UK government over its handling of far-right rioting. A spokesperson for UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said there was “no justification” for Musk’s comments after he last weekend said “civil war is inevitable” in the country.
Brian Nichols, US assistant secretary of state for western hemisphere affairs, on Thursday night said Maduro’s campaign of repression “is not a sustainable path, nor is it a sign of strength”.
“The voices of Venezuelan voters will not be silenced by repression, censorship or disinformation,” Nichols said. “The world is watching.”
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