Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said on Thursday he had signed an order to block access to social media platform X for 10 days, after he said the platform had been used to incite violence following the country’s presidential election.
Maduro has frequently spoken out against X-Files owner Elon Musk since the July 28 election. The opposition says he won the election, a claim backed by a growing number of Western governments.
Maduro said he signed an order presented by regulator Conatel that “decided to take Social Network X, formerly known as Twitter, out of circulation for 10 days.”
“X, get out of Venezuela for 10 days!” he said in a speech broadcast on state television.
Maduro and Venezuela’s election authority have said the president won a third term in the election, though the opposition has claimed victory and said it has the vote count to prove it. Neither Maduro nor the electoral body has released a detailed vote count.
In the days following the vote, Venezuelans across the country and abroad began protesting, demanding that Maduro step down and respect the victory of opposition candidate Edmundo González.
The protests were largely publicised on social media.
The leftist president earlier this week asked his supporters to switch from messaging application WhatsApp to Telegram or WeChat, saying the app was being used to threaten the families of soldiers and police officers.
Maduro and Musk have been at loggerheads in public since the election. In addition to banning the social network for 10 days, Maduro has accused Musk of inciting hatred, civil war and death.
The social network did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Earlier, the foreign ministers of Mexico, Colombia and Brazil in a joint statement reiterated their demand for Venezuela’s electoral authority to publish the vote count.
The statement comes after comments by Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado on Thursday, in which she called on Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador to convince Maduro that his best option is to negotiate with the country’s opposition.