Venezuela's Maduro suspends X after Musk election 'attack'

Venezuela's contested President Nicolas Maduro said he had signed a resolution to block access to the social media platform X in the country for 10 days. 

The state agency in charge of telecommunications would "remove the social network X, formerly known as Twitter, from circulation in Venezuela for 10 days," Maduro said Thursday. 

The platform's owner, Elon Musk, has commented critically several times about Venezuela's recent contentious elections. In one post, he  welcomed the news of the US government recognizing opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez as the rightful winner of the vote, though his political attention has moved elsewhere in recent days.

Maduro had previously accused the billionaire of an "attack" on his reelection, frequently taking aim at Musk in response. 

When announcing the suspension on Thursday, Maduro said Musk had violated "all the rules" of his own platform, accusing him of "inciting hatred and fascism." 

"We have to defeat the cyber coup," said Maduro, one of many references to what he has portrayed as collusion by major international social media companies in efforts to undermine his government.

Opposition communicates, coordinates on social media

Maduro and the election authority have said he won a third term in the July 28 vote, but have not presented official results. The opposition, meanwhile, has maintained that Gonzalez won and that it has the vote counts to back up the claim. 

Widespread protests by opposition supporters broke out in the days after the vote, often facilitated via communication and coordination on social media sites.

Earlier in the week, Maduro appealed to people to stop using the US-owned communication platform WhatsApp and to switch to Telegram or WeChat. He claimed the app, which like Facebook and Instagram is owned by Meta, was being used to threaten the families of soldiers and police officers.

"Enough is enough, enough of trying to sow violence, hatred, of trying to attack Venezuela from abroad," Maduro said when announcing the measures against X.

"Some day, sooner rather than later, new Venezuelan social media networks will be born," he added, to reduce the influence of existing companies that Maduro has previously called "multipliers of hate." 

Neighbors renew call for vote tallies to be published

Earlier Thursday, the foreign ministers of Mexico, Colombia and Brazil issued a joint statement reiterating their call for Venezuela's electoral authority to publish the vote tallies.

The three countries are leading efforts to broker talks between political forces in Venezuela, a process endorsed by the US.

That followed a call from opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who was excluded from candidacy in the election over corruption allegations, to Mexico's President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador to impress upon Maduro that his best option was to negotiate with the country's opposition. 

msh/sms (AFP, EFE, Reuters)