Caracas Venezuela.- President Nicolas Maduro said on Monday that he will “break ties” with WhatsApp, and claimed that the popular messaging app is used by fascist groups to threaten Venezuela, according to information published by the Reuters news agency.
WhatsApp is owned by the American company Meta, parent company of Facebook.
“I’m going to break ties with WhatsApp. Because WhatsApp is being used to threaten Venezuela. And so I’m going to delete my WhatsApp from my phone forever. Little by little I’ll move my contacts to Telegram, to WeChat (…) WhatsApp out of Venezuela!” said Maduro in a speech from the government palace.
“They are threatening the Venezuelan military family through WhatsApp. The officers. (…) They are threatening anyone who does not speak out in favor of fascism through WhatsApp (…) First step: Voluntary, progressive and radical withdrawal from WhatsApp,” added the president, who asked Venezuelans to follow him on the Telegram and WeChat applications.
Venezuela’s electoral authority, which the opposition says favors the ruling party, has declared Maduro the winner of the July 28 vote, saying he was re-elected with about 51 percent of the vote, beating opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez.
The opposition says its own detailed count shows Gonzalez likely received 67 percent of the vote, winning by a margin of nearly 4 million votes, and garnering more than double Maduro’s support, a result in line with independent polls.
The Maduro government is increasingly isolated amid calls from the international community for the publication of electoral registers.
“And we say to WhatsApp: WhatsApp, go to hell. Stop threatening Venezuelans, men and women. Because criminals use it. Criminals have Colombian, Chilean, and American chips,” the leader remarked to the cheers of the audience.
With information from Reuters.
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