REPORT | Redes Ayuda: Error 404: Democracy Not Found
Redes Ayuda | Venezuela | June 27, 2022
In Venezuela, the State policy of Nicolás Maduro’s regime continues with the purpose of increasingly diminishing the dissemination of contents that are critical of his administration, and is characterized by the persecution of press workers, activists, human rights defenders and independent media, attacking them with threatening speeches, discrediting their journalistic work and promoting fear and self-censorship.
Media outlets continue to face blockades and cyber attacks that restrict access to the information they disseminate on their platforms. Dissidents in the country also continue to face threats and harassment, physical and verbal aggressions, and arbitrary detentions for documenting a protest, questioning the regime’s actions or simply for disseminating a satirical video on social networks.
On the other hand, they continued to make use of these platforms, not only to undertake campaigns in favor of their major allies, but they have also developed a series of strategies with the aim of ensuring that their narratives are positioned on social networks. An example of this is the army of accounts managed by people who receive weekly bonuses through the Carnet de la Patria and who help to position trends with Chavista propaganda.
Likewise, the regime continues to advance in the promotion and approval of pseudo-laws aimed at deepening its control and censorship. Not only we continue to see it in the arbitrary detentions based on the “Law Against Hate”, but also with the new discussions on the “Cyberspace Law” and a new update to the RESORTEME law to regulate social networks.
Finally, and as RedesAyuda has been documenting, surveillance and control over freedom of expression continues to be one of its main objectives. This can be seen, for example, in the relationship of the regime with the company Cellebrite, in the discussion behind closed doors on the implementation of an IXP, which although it provides great benefits, by the history of CONATEL in conjunction with the regime to control traditional and digital media this would mean more surveillance; and in evidence such as those that were recently released, which shows how the company Telefonica quadrupled the tapping of telephones in Venezuela at the request of the Maduro regime.
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