Nicolás Maduro bans X in Venezuela for 10 days amid dispute with Elon Musk

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro blocked in the country after claiming that the platform owner incited hatred and “violated” the rules of his own social network. “Shame on dictator Maduro” Who that the sitting president committed “massive electoral fraud.”

Maduro, who also argued that his rivals were using the platform to fuel political unrest, said he had given the green light to a proposal from the national telecommunications authority to “remove social network X, formerly known as Twitter, from circulation in Venezuela for 10 days”. This is in accordance with the which stated that its reporters in the country were unable to access X after the proclamation. X does not have a public relations department that can be contacted for comment.

Although Musk has likely fanned the flames of the situation in Venezuela, Maduro could be using him as a scapegoat, so that he has a pretext to temporarily block X and try to suppress discussion about the election results. The president claimed victory in the July presidential elections, but the the result was contested.

Independent exit polls and analysis of electronic voting data indicated that Maduro’s opposition, Edmundo González, may have received twice as many votes as the current president. The Maduro-controlled national electoral council, however, stated that Maduro had a 52 percent share of the vote, with González getting 43 percent. The board has not yet produced vote tallies as required by law.