Venezuela Denies Access To X For Ten Days, Citing Hate Speech Promotion

President Maduro claims Elon Musk is fomenting discord and hatred, so he bans X (previously Twitter) in Venezuela for ten days.

President Nicolás Maduro has imposed a 10-day ban on Venezuelans’ ability to access X, formerly known as Twitter, alleging that the company’s owner, Elon Musk, is using the platform to instigate political unrest and spread hatred.

In a speech after a march by pro-government organizations, Maduro declared, “Elon Musk is the owner of X and has violated all the rules of the social network itself. He has incited hatred.”

Maduro said that Musk had broken the social network’s own rules with his conduct and that his opponents had also exploited X to sow political discord in the nation, which had just had a contentious presidential election.

Posts on X on two commercial phone providers and state-owned Movilnet were no longer loading when the ban was discovered on Thursday night.

“The National Telecommunications Commission, CONATEL, has decided to remove the social network X, formerly known as Twitter, from circulation in Venezuela for 10 days so that they can present their documents,” Maduro said he had signed a resolution supporting the idea.

The president underlined that the action was required to stop further instigation of hatred and disturbance, although he did not go into greater detail regarding the procedure followed against X.