Row with social media platform owner Elon Musk escalates after Maduro was declared the winner of last month’s election.
Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro has ordered a 10-day ban on social media platform X amid an uproar in the country over a disputed election.
Accusing X owner Elon Musk of “inciting hate and fasicism”, Maduro on Thursday said he signed a resolution presented by telecommunications regulator Conatel which “has decided to take social network X, formerly known as Twitter, out of circulation for 10 days”.
“Elon Musk is the owner of X and has violated all the rules of the social network itself,” Maduro said following a march by pro-government groups.
“X get out of Venezuela for 10 days!” he said in a speech that was broadcast on state television.
Election authorities declared Maduro the winner of the July 28 election with 51.2 percent of votes, but have yet to release detailed results. It said opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, who had been leading in opinion polls, got 44.2 percent.
The announcement led to widespread accusations of fraud which also spread across social media. Protests from Venezuelans nationwide and abroad broke out demanding Maduro step down and honour a win by Gonzalez.
In a joint statement, the foreign ministers of Brazil, Colombia and Mexico on Thursday called on the National Electoral Council (CNE) to publish the vote tallies.
The opposition says it won in a landslide and warned Thursday of a potential mass exodus if Maduro is allowed to remain in power.
Maduro and Musk have frequently traded accusations and barbs, with the billionaire comparing the president with a donkey. They have also offered and accepted challenges to fight each other in comments on X and via Venezuelan state television.
Musk used the social network to accuse the leader of a “great electoral fraud”, also writing in a post on Monday: “Shame on the dictator Maduro”.
Maduro has slammed Musk for being a driving force behind protests and dissent following the election.
This week, Maduro also urged supporters to abandon Meta-owned WhatsApp in favour of Telegram or WeChat, saying the messaging app was being used to threaten the families of soldiers and police officers.
The opposition, led by Maria Corina Machado and Gonzalez, says it has copies of the tallies that show it won the election with more than 7 million votes, compared with Maduro’s 3.3 million votes.
Countries including the United States, Argentina and Chile have refused to recognise Maduro’s claimed victory, instead urging transparency and the publication of the voting tallies. China and Russia have congratulated Maduro on his victory.
“The voices of Venezuelan voters will not be silenced by repression, censorship, or disinformation. The world is watching,” Brian A Nichols, the assistant secretary of state for western hemisphere affairs at the US Department of State, said in a post on X.