Venezuela’s president closes the country’s access to X

Venezuela’s telecommunications authorities “shall remove access to the social network X, formerly known as Twitter, in Venezuela for ten days”, reads a decree from Maduro.

X owner Elon Musk has previously criticized the election outcome, which has caused Maduro to lash out at Musk.

There has been great political unrest in Venezuela after Maduro was declared the winner of the election at the end of July, and social media has been widely used by the opposition to inform about demonstrations against Maduro.

Earlier this week, Maduro urged his supporters to ditch WhatsApp and instead use Telegram and WeChat. WhatsApp is being used to threaten the families of soldiers and police officers, Maduro claimed.

The opposition disputes the election result, and believes it is sitting on figures that show that their candidate Edmundo Gonzales was the winner. The news agency AP has independently reviewed figures that show the same.

Maduro, for his part, says he won, and has announced an investigation into the opposition. Maduro said at the weekend that 2,000 people were arrested for demonstrating against the election results, and he said the protesters will be sent to the high-security prisons of Tocorón and Tocuyito.

A number of countries, as well as the EU, do not recognize Maduro’s victory.

Venezuela’s Supreme Court, which, like the country’s electoral commission, is considered to be close to Maduro, has started an investigation into the election results. The Supreme Court in Caracas is now considering certifying the result and has summoned Maduro to a meeting to be held on Friday.