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CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said today he had signed a decree blocking social media platform X for 10 days after he said it was being used to incite violence following Venezuela’s presidential election.
Maduro has frequently slammed Tesla X owner Elon Musk since the July 28 election, which the opposition claims it won, a claim that is increasingly being supported by Western governments.
Maduro said he signed an order proposed by regulator Conatel “deciding to suspend the social network X, formerly known as Twitter, for 10 days.”
“X leaves Venezuela in 10 days!” he said in a speech broadcast on state television.
Maduro and Venezuela’s electoral body said the president won a third term in the election, but the opposition claimed victory and said it had the ballots to prove it. Neither Maduro nor the electoral body released detailed results.
In the days after the vote, protests broke out across Venezuela and abroad, calling for Maduro to step down and saluting the victory of opposition candidate Edmundo González.
The protests were largely publicized on social media.
The leftist president had earlier this week asked his supporters to abandon the messaging app WhatsApp and use Telegram or WeChat instead, saying it was being used to threaten the families of soldiers and police officers.
Maduro has also publicly clashed with Musk since the election. In addition to banning the social network for 10 days, Maduro accused Musk of inciting hatred, civil war and death.
The social network did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Earlier, the foreign ministers of Mexico, Colombia and Brazil once again called on Venezuela’s electoral management body to announce the election results in a joint statement.
The comments came after Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado spoke on Thursday, calling on Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador to show Maduro that negotiating with the country’s opposition was his best option.
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