Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has signed a decree blocking access to social media platform X, formerly Twitter, for 10 days following a public spat with owner Elon Musk.
The two men have traded barbs since Mr Maduro was declared the winner of last month’s disputed presidential election.
Mr Musk has described the Venezuelan leader as a “dictator” and a “clown”, while Mr Maduro has accused Mr Musk of inciting “hatred, fascism, [and] civil war”.
Recent weeks have seen anti-government protests flare up over the election result and hundreds of people have been arrested by Venezuela’s security forces.
Electoral authorities declared Maduro the winner but have yet to produce voting tallies, while the opposition claims to have records from more than 80% of electronic voting machines nationwide showing the winner was their candidate, Edmundo González.
In a speech Thursday, Maduro said he signed a decree ordering the Venezuelan telecommunications regulator to block X, as the firm’s owner, Musk, “violated all of the rules of the very social network Twitter, today known as X — all of them. And he has violated [the rules], by inciting hatred, fascism, civil war, death and confrontations among Venezuelans, [he] has violated all of the laws of Venezuela. And in Venezuela there are laws … and we will enforce the laws.
Peoplesmind
