Venezuela’s Maduro Bans X for 10 Days as His War With Elon Musk Escalates

President Maduro is cutting off X users’ access to the platform in Venezuela until August 21, blasting its billionaire owner, Elon Musk, for “inciting hatred” during his international political crusade.Mr. Maduro is accusing Mr. Musk of encouraging and promoting the protests that have swelled across the country since the dictator declared himself the winner of Venezuela’s elections last week. This is the dictator’s latest jab at the Tesla CEO.Mr. Maduro signed a resolution that will “remove the social network X, formerly known as Twitter, from circulation in Venezuela for 10 days so that they can present their documents.”Mr. Maduro said in a speech Thursday that Mr. Musk “has violated the rules” of his own social media outlet “by inciting hatred, fascism, civil war, death, confrontation of Venezuelans and has violated all Venezuelan laws.”During the speech, which followed a series of pro-government marches, Mr. Maduro declared emphatically: “X out for 10 days. Elon Musk out.” By Friday morning, the network would not load for users in Venezuela unless they had access to a VPN.Mr. Musk has not been shy in declaring “shame on dictator Maduro,” in response to the country’s disputed July 28 election results. The Venezuelan head of state responded by publicly challenging him to a fight on national television.“I am not afraid of you,” Maduro said. “Let’s go at it. Wherever you want. As we say in Caracas in the neighborhoods, if you want it, I want it, Elon Musk.”Mr. Musk replied by saying that Mr. Maduro would “chicken out” of a fight. Mr. Musk said that if he wins, Mr. Maduro must resign “as dictator of Venezuela. If he wins, I give him a free ride to Mars.”This is not the first time the X owner has stirred up trouble with foreign political figures. The self-proclaimed free speech absolutist had previously accused a Brazilian supreme court justice, Alexandre de Moraes, of attacking free speech in Brazil, claiming that X employees were facing threats of arrest from the Brazilian government.Justice de Moraes had put Mr. Musk under investigation for allegedly engaging in a “disinformation campaign” against the Brazilian supreme court. The billionaire said the justice’s suspension of X accounts “brazenly and repeatedly betrayed the constitution and people of Brazil.”This week, Mr. Musk also took jabs at Britain’s new prime minister, Keir Starmer. Mr. Musk called Mr. Starmer “Two Tier Keir,” after police reportedly failed to address a “Muslim Patrol” attack on a pub in Birmingham.The attack targeted “right-wingers” the group believed it would find at the pub, because talk of a right-wing demonstration was promoted online. Police said they had plans to contain the right-wing protest, but did nothing when the “Muslim Patrol” beat those in the pub.“Why aren’t all communities protected in Britain?” Mr. Musk said on X, tagging the prime minister. When Mr. Starmer released a statement saying that the government “will not tolerate attacks on mosques or on Muslim communities,” Mr. Musk again hit out.“Shouldn’t you be concerned about attacks on *all* communities?” he responded.This week, a woman was arrested in Britain on suspicion of writing and sharing material to whip up racial hatred and misinformation. British police also arrested a man for making offensive Facebook posts.“Is this Britain or the Soviet Union?” Mr. Musk asked in response to the second arrest.Mr. Starmer said that those inciting any kind of violence, online or offline, will “face the full force of the law.”

Venezuela’s Maduro Bans X for 10 Days as His War With Elon Musk Escalates

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