Global Voices Advocacy » Marianne Diaz

Will the Revolution Still be Tweeted? Venezuela's Netizens Face Uncertain Future

Marianne Diaz — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 11:34:54 +0000

The March 2013 death of Hugo Chávez has unleashed chaos in Venezuela, with government officials and citizens alike struggling to come to grips with the uncertainties of the country’s political future. Currents of political instability have increased steadily since news of Chávez’s illness became public. But the political icon’s death and the recent election of his heir and VP, Nicolás Maduro (who won by a margin of less than two percentage points) have further stoked the ideological flames among those opposed to Chavismo.

Since the election, supporters of Maduro's opponent, Henrique Capriles, have staged massive demonstrations to demand a vote recount in Caracas and other major cities, despite efforts by the government and national guard to the block their actions. It has been reported that between six and eight people have died in these protests and several buildings have been set fire by extreme factions of the opposition, though these reports have not been confirmed.

“Tengo un dedito” [I have a little finger]. Photo by Luis Carlos Diaz. (CC BY-NC 2.0)

All of these events have had adverse effects on citizen and social media users. In just six weeks since Chávez’s death, two social media users have been arrested on charges of posting information and images deemed “destabilizing” to the country. On election day, the Internet was briefly shut down throughout most of the country. And today, social network users are facing threats to their employment status, as authorities search profiles for signs of political affiliation that have, in several cases, resulted in users losing their jobs.

The fourteen-year mandate of President Chávez was marked by controversy and divergence of views between different sectors within and outside the country. The framework of a so-called “ideological battle,” has pitted government supporters and critics against one another, though it shows few signs of real, critical debate. As the battle has been waged in traditional media and on the streets, it also has moved to social networks.

In many ways, the use of social networks was a strong marker of the unique brand of socialism cultivated by Hugo Chávez. Although traditional and digital media alike were instrumental tools for his administration, Chávez was especially known for his use of Twitter (@ChavezCandanga) as a platform for political communication. Diosdado Cabello, one of Chávez’s aides, once commented on the power of the medium in the ideological battle:

The opposition believes itself to be the owner of social networking. They think Twitter and Facebook is theirs. We are fighting the battle and we are 7 million militants who will have Twitter.

Cabello noted that they would “assault social networks to counter the views expressed by [their] opponents.” Many government officials now have Twitter accounts and use them to communicate important information to citizens. Different political parties, candidates and NGOs also use Twitter to interact with followers. This has proven effective in Venezuela, which has high numbers of social network users relative to its neighbors, and globally ranks thirteenth for its number of Twitter users.

In April 2010, the government announced the creation of the “communicational guerrilla“, a group of citizens employed to “fight the ideological battle” in independent and mainstream media and on the Internet. So today, the battle is being fought in hashtags: keyword positioning in support of and against the government is a constant, and there are, on both sides, users dedicated to monitoring specific keywords to respond, often aggressively, to those expressing controversial opinions.

Hugo Chavez Frias. Photo from anticapitalistes.net. (CC BY-SA-NC 2.5 ES)

It is widely believed that the Chávez government was characterized by an “excessive” allowance of freedom of expression. Yet during the last six years of his tenure, at least five social network users were arrested, all under similar circumstances: Users with little or no influence in social networks were taken into custody for making politically controversial comments (usually on Twitter) and were charged with “spreading rumors” that caused “instability of the country.” They were held for short detentions, and then released on parole. Since Chávez’s death, there have been two similar arrests.

Curiously, none of these detentions has been based on the Law of Social Responsibility and its applications for electronic media. The law covers a wide range of online content:

[The law prohibits content that] uses anonymity, encourages and promotes hatred and intolerance for religious, political, gender, racism or xenophobic reasons; incites or promotes and/or justify the crime, constitutes war propaganda, promotes anxiety in the citizenry or alter public order; disowns legitimately constituted authorities; induces murder, incites or encourages disobedience of the existing law, or promotes, justifies or incites public disorder.

Passed by executive order and enacted in 2010, the law has not been applied in court thus far. The law also holds Internet Service Providers liable for such content. ISPs can face fines of “up to 4% of their gross income from fiscal year prior to the infringement.” But there is no evidence that the law is being applied; users report that censored websites are only being blocked by government-run ISP CANTV, but not by privately-owned providers.

A different formula has been used to push back against influential online critics of the government and party. A collective user group known as N33, allegedly comprised of government-supporter hackers (and by some accounts, promoted and financed directly by the government), has a long history of hacking into Twitter, Facebook and email accounts of journalists, activists, politicians, and other high profile figures from the opposition. The group has also been known to issue threats via electronic means and telephone to other well-known figures of digital activism.

During the country’s brief presidential campaign cycle this April, both candidates actively used social media and other online platforms, including a web TV channel, to promote their candidacy. Citizen journalists have played a key role in counter balancing the information transmitted through traditional channels. They have uncovered abuses and acts of violence in different parts of the country and established alternate spaces for public opinion.

Initiatives like UstedAbuso (You Abused) allowed users to report on violations of electoral law during the campaign. Personal accounts like that of Eugenio Martinez (@puzkas), a journalist specializing in electoral coverage, became essential to following the pulse of the country in recent months. Luis Carlos Diaz and Naky Soto created a “live feed” on YouTube (called simply “The Hangout“), where they broadcast several nights a week to discuss the political landscape. The channel has received nearly half a million views.

Election day in Venezuela. Photo by Luis Carlos Diaz. (CC BY-NC 2.0)

On election day, government power over telecommunications networks was brought to bear in a way that Venezuelans had never seen before: for somewhere between three and twenty minutes late in the day, nearly all Internet connections in the country were blocked. This was relatively easy. In 2010, the government attempted to create a single network access point through state-owned telecommunications company CANTV, which provides over 90% of Internet access in the country. The government’s nearly complete acquisition of CANTV has made it easier for authorities to censor websites deemed illegal (such as quelacreo.com or dollar.nu). When Internet access was blocked for all CANTV subscribersat the end of election day on April 14, the Ministry of Telecommunications explained that authorities blocked the network in an effort to “avoid hacks” to the website of the National Electoral Council. This website was also made inaccessible from foreign IPs for the same reason.

Since election day, user profiles on social networks have begun to serve a new purpose: they are helping authorities to identify user political affiliations in order to “debug” public service and private enterprise. Countless complaints of public employees who have lost their jobs after authorities scanned their social network profiles and discovered their political support for the opposition. This has also happened to private sector employees, though for the opposite reasons. Citizens call this the “resurrection” of the Tascon List, an instrument used in order to filter out those citizens who had signed in 2004 in favor of a recall referendum against President Chávez, and to prevent their recruitment in the public service, which was allegedly eliminated by Chávez himself in 2005 [es].

The beginning of Nicolás Maduro's presidential term has been marked by a strong wave of protests, both online and offline, and rampant rumors and false information transmitted over the Internet. Maduro, Chávez's successor says he plans to follow in his predecessor’s footsteps in media strategy. He has created a Twitter account (@ NicolasMaduro, which was hacked by a collective Peruvian on election day) and has announced that his government will be “firm-handed” in media policy implementation. It remains to be seen whether this policy will affect how Venezuelan citizens make use of the Internet.

Venezuela: Facebook User Detained for “Destabilizing” Photograph

Marianne Diaz — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 22:11:41 +0000

This post was co-authored by Marianne Diaz and Luis Carlos Díaz.

On April 16, two days after presidential elections in Venezuela, the Interior and Justice Ministry detained Andrés Rondón Sayago, a citizen who allegedly spread photographs of burning ballots. Officials say that the photographs were taken during 2007 elections, not in the present day. Rondón Sayago was detained, accused of sharing the photograph with “destabilizing intentions.” According to Ministry officials, Rondón Sayago works as security employee up a private television station. The Minister for Information tweeted:

Detenido sujeto que difundió imágenes falsas de material electoral de 2010 para desestabilizar aporrea.org/actualidad/n22…

— Ernesto Villegas P. (@VillegasPoljakE) 16 de abril de 2013

A subject who spread fake images of electoral material from 2010 [intending] to destabilize has been detained http://t.co/MCmgveBsux

Soon after, Jorge Galindo, head of public relations for the Interior and Justice Ministry, tweeted a picture that showed Rondón Sayago along with this message:

OJO: Este sujeto confesó que la foto difundida por el en redes sociales sobré material electoral son del proceso 2007 twitter.com/JorgeGalindoMI…

— Jorge galindo(@JorgeGalindoMIJ) 17 de abril de 2013

The subject confessed that the picture spread by him in social networks about electoral materials is from the 2007 process pic.twitter.com/EMTwoXkpcQ

Galindo later tweeted [es] a link to a video, uploaded to the A Toda Vida Venezuela (“Venezuela Full of Life,” a government program intended to reduce crime) YouTube channel, where Rondón Sayago issues an official statement in which he declares to have published the picture “by mistake” via Facebook, and asks people to “stop publishing this kind of material” and avoid situations of “terrorism”. The video [es] can be seen below.

Several incidents of online censorship have been reported from Venezuela in recent years. In 2010, two Twitter users were detained by police for allegedly “spreading false rumors” about the banking system. Last month, a woman was detained for tweeting a comment about Hugo Chavez's demise. All of them have since been released on parole.

Colombia: Copyright Law Rejected by Constitutional Court

Marianne Diaz — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 17:40:00 +0000

On Wednesday night, January 23, 2013, the Colombian Constitutional Court declared unconstitutional [es] Articles 13 and 14 of the Law 1520, better known as “Lleras Law 2.0,” stating that the law “violated the fundamental rights of expression and communication.” The proposed law introduced new terms and penalties for online copyright infringement in accordance with the Free Trade Agreement signed between Colombia and the United States.

Contra-copyright by Marco Gomes (CC BY 2.0)

The Court addressed Article 13, which forbids the broadcast of TV signals without the express permission of rights holders, and Article 14, which would make it illegal to break Digital Rights Management (DRM) — technologies used to block access to copyrighted digital content — and to make private copies of content, even when legally acquired. The Court found that these articles constituted a breach of fundamental rights to education, access to information and equality.

The Court also declared that the entire process of passing the law was flawed, arguing that it should have been treated as a statutory law and not an ordinary one, thus rendering the rest of the law void.

This outcome is the result of a law suit filed by Senator Jorge Robledo before the Constitutional Court nearly a year ago [es]. He argued that the law restricted the use of the Internet to transmit information and forbade the broadcast of TV signals, limiting, without justification, citizens’ rights to access and share information.

Advocacy by netizens and civil rights organizations also contributed to the outcome. Since Colombia's congress passed the law in May of 2012, a campaign of “citizen interventions” and protests expressed widespread indignation about the law.

Yesterday, however, upon the announcement of the rejection of Lleras Law 2.0 by the Constitutional Court, the Colombian blogosphere was in a celebratory mood. Blogger @pazpena, from the ONG Derechos Digitales (Digital Rights) is happy. He writes [es]:

un resultado feliz para toda la sociedad civil que se movilizó y para los representantes que supieron escuchar sus demandas.

a happy outcome for all the civil society [who] mobilized [itself] and for representatives who were able to listen to their demands.

Now, the Executive will need to draft a new bill on intellectual property in order to meet the requirements of the Free Trade Agreement signed between Colombia and the US, which once again will have to be approved by the Constitutional Court before it becomes a law.

The battle is not over yet.

Venezuela: The bill to regulate internet has been approved

Marianne Diaz — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 13:31:01 +0000

On Monday, December 20th, the Venezuelan Parliament passed the bill that gives the Executive the power to regulate all content accessible in Internet within Venezuela. Through an administrative organ, CONATEL, all venezuelan-based ISPs will have the responsibility to block all content that collides with article 28 and 29:

Inciten y promuevan el odio y la intolerancia por razones religiosas, políticas, por diferencia de género, por racismo o xenofobia.

Inciten o promuevan y/o hagan apología al delito.

Constituyan propaganda de Guerra.

Fomenten zozobra en la ciudadanía o alteren el orden público.

Desconozcan a las autoridades legítimamente constituidas.

Induzcan al homicidio.

Inciten o promuevan el incumplimiento del ordenamiento jurídico vigente.

Promuevan, hagan apología o inciten a alteraciones del orden público

Utilicen el anonimato.

Desconozcan las autoridades legítimamente constituidas.

Encourages and promotes hatred and intolerance for religious, political, and gender difference, by racism or xenophobia.
Incites or promote and/or justify the crime.
Constitutes war propaganda.
Fosters unrest among the citizenship or disturb public order.
Refuses to recognize the government's authority.
Induces to murder.
Incites or promotes the violation of existing law.
Promote, justify or incite public disturbances
Use anonimity.
Disregards the legitimate authority

According to congress members, the law will regulate all content, including text, images, sound and video, that might collide with the above mentioned provisions. Through an administrative procedure, those ISPs that are considered to break the law will be sanctioned with high fines.

This very morning, the Venezuelan President, Hugo Chávez, stated through his twitter account that he just had enacted the law. The law will take effect the day following its publication in the Official Gazette.

Venezuela: Internet law moves forward, albeit with changes

Marianne Diaz — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 10:02:24 +0000

In a first round of discussion, on December 14th, the Venezuelan National Assembly approved the reform to the Law on Social Responsibility in Radio, Television and Electronic Media and differed for today the Law for Telecommunications. However, the texts that were discussed yesterday were different to the ones that were published on the Assembly website, and several points were eliminated, amongst them, the implementation of a national Network Access Point, and the expressions “moral and good customs” appear to have been eliminated.

The final text, which has been leaked through the net, still retains the rule providing that Internet service providers are responsible for all content accessible to its users, and are obliged to have mechanisms in order to restrict those messages prohibited by the law.

It also remains the prohibition of all content that:

1. Inciten y promuevan el odio y la intolerancia por razones religiosas, políticas, por diferencia de género, por racismo o xenofobia.
2. Inciten o promuevan y/o hagan apología al delito.
3. Constituyan propaganda de Guerra.
4. Fomenten zozobra en la ciudadanía o alteren el orden público.
5. Desconozcan a las autoridades legítimamente constituidas.
6. Induzcan al homicidio.
7. Inciten o promuevan el incumplimiento del ordenamiento jurídico vigente.

1. Encourages and promote hatred and intolerance for religious, political, and gender difference, by racism or xenophobia.
2. Incites or promote and/or justify the crime.
3. Constitutes war propaganda.
4. Foster unrest among the citizenship or disturb public order.
5. Refuses to recognize the government's authority.
6. Induces to murder.
7. Incite or promote the violation of existing law.

It has been also clarified that the prohibition of contents regarding explicit sex and violence it's appliable only to radio and television. Also, the prohibition of anonimity and “messages against the Nation's security” remains.

According to the Venezuelan Constitution, in order to have this bill passed the Assembly will have to perform a second reading, which is scheduled for today. The law will enter in rigor the following day to its publication in the National Gazette, as it does not contemplate a vacatio legis.

In Twitter, people are now using the hashtag #SOSInternetVE to protest against this law.

Links:
Venezuela: To second reading the law to regulate Internet [ES]
Text of the bill in Scribd [ES]

Venezuela: A law to regulate the Internet raises controversy

Marianne Diaz — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 13:57:46 +0000

After several months of rumors, last friday it was confirmed that Venezuelan government is boosting a law reform to regulate the access and usage of the Internet within the country.

The law that will be reformed is the Law on Social Responsibility in Radio and Television (known as Resorte Law). This bill was introduced last friday before the National Assembly and will be discussed next thursday, apparently for its approval in the last weeks of service of current members, who will be replaced next january 5th. Also, a new reform of the Law for Telecommunications will be discussed, apparently in order to declare radio, television and telecommunication services, a public service.

The project contemplates the inclusion of electronic media as a subject of the law, modification of time slots for message diffusion, the inclusion of a list of messages whose transmission won't be allowed by any means, and several modifications of administrative penalty procedures.Also, article 212 of the proposed law foresee the creation of a national Network Access Point, controlled by government:

El Estado creará un punto de interconexión o punto de acceso a la red de los proveedores de servicios de Internet en Venezuela con la finalidad de manejar el tráfico con origen y destino en Venezuela, con el objeto de utilizar de manera más eficiente las redes del país dado el carácter estratégico del sector.

The State will create an interconnection point or Network Access Point of all internet service providers in Venezuela, in order to manage all traffic with origin and destination in Venezuela, to use more efficiently the country's networks, given the strategic character of the sector.

Although authorities haven't given much explanations in reference to the law project, it is understood that, considering previously explained aspects, that the so-called “time slots”, would be applicable through the NAP, which would restrain all traffic forbidden under the law, according to its content.

Users expressed not only their disagreement, but also their opinion that the law would be inapplicable and manifest a profound unknowledge of Internet and its structure and operation. Espacio Público (an NGO devoted to civil rights in Venezuela) has declared:

El proyecto incurre en graves deficiencias de técnica legislativa que permiten que los funcionarios que tengan la responsabilidad de aplicar este instrumento legal puedan actuar arbitraria y discrecionalmente, lo que constituye en sí mismo una vulneración del derecho humano a la libertad de expresión y permite su aplicación selectiva e interesada.

The project incurs in serious technical deficiencies that allow officials who'll have the responsibility to implement this legal instrument to act arbitrarily and discretionary, which constitutes a violation of human right to freedom of expression and allows selective application.

Also, they have stated that generic prohibitions contained in the law would violate the American Convention, which limits restrictions to freedom of speech, only to messages promoting war and violence. The law, in a long list of prohibitions, includes, for instance “any message that attempts against morality”.

Besides that, the bill emphasizes the prohibition of anonimity. Government's spokespersons have said that the law attempts to restrict the difussion of messages “that could constitute mediatic manipulations addressed to foster unrest or disturb public order”. However, what Venezuelan government considers “to foster unrest” remains doubtful since users have been arrested for their online behavior.

In the meantime, twitterers are using the hashtag #internetlibre (free internet) in order to express their views and debate about the measures.

Link: Document of presentation of the Bill before the National Assembly (ES – PDF), in the website Espacio Público (ES).

El Universal: Venezuelan govn't seeks media law to regulate the Internet.

Venezuela: WordPress reported inaccessible for three days

Marianne Diaz — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 13:20:16 +0000

Since Sunday afternoon, September 26th, 2010, while Venezuelan elections for the National Assembly were still being held, several users started reporting that they were unable to access any blog hosted on the free blogging platform WordPress.com from their internet connections within the country.

Blogger Elena Sanchez Vilela said [Spanish]:

Karakenio me confirmó que su blog sí se podía ver en el exterior pero que para él visualizarlo debía usar un proxy. Gabriel luego me dijo que desde su internet en el celular su blog sí se leía. Captain Arepa usó hidemyass para escribirle a WP sobre el asunto (su respuesta aún no la sé).
A esta hora de la noche sigo viendo en twitter que la gente se queja sobre el bloqueo o el filtro que aplicó ABA CANTV a todas las direcciones que incluyan la palabra “wordpress” en el url; @fabianadipolo me explicó que ella tiene blogs con dominio propio que sí se abren. Y está confirmado que es con CANTV porque usando el internet de INTER, la red 3G de Movistar, Movilnet y Digitel estos blogs sí se ven.

Karakenio confirmed to me that his blog could be seen abroad, but for him to see it, he needed to use a proxy. Gabriel said to me later that from his cellphone his blog could be read. Captain Arepa used hidemyass to write to WP about the issue (their answer I still don’t know it).
At this time at night, I still see on twitter people complaining about the blockage or the filter that ABA CANTV applied to all addresses including the word “wordpress” in the url; @fabianadipolo explained to me that she has several wordpress blogs using custom domain names that do open. And it has been confirmed that it’s [only] with CANTV, since the access to wordpress.com from INTER, the 3G net from Movistar, Movilnet and Digitel these blogs is working.

The website Código Venezuela stated [Spanish]:

La falla que se presentó de manera intermitente el día de las elecciones, domingo 26 de septiembre, se mantiene hasta este martes. El sistema Nacional de Gestión de Incidentes Telemáticos (VenCERT) realizó un monitoreo sobre más de mil quinientos (1500) sitios web donde supervisaron contenidos ilegales en diversas páginas desde el pasado viernes 24 hasta el lunes 27, según precisa el Ministerio de Ciencia, Teconología e Industrias Intermedias en su web.
Al respecto, un 48% de las páginas, cuyo nombre no se específica, presentaba “publicación ilegal de contenido electoral”, que según el organismo se solventó con acciones orientadas al “resguardo de la integridad y disponibilidad de la información publicada”, señala VenCERT.
[…]Las páginas hospedadas en WordPress pueden ser accedidas desde España, así como el Reino Unido, inclusive se puede ver desde Venezuela utilizando un sistema de proxy, según apunta, Sergio Almendro, director de zuplemento.com

The failure that presented intermittently the day of elections, Sunday september 26th, maintains until Tuesday. The National System for Gestion of Telematic Incidents (VENCERT, for its Spanish acronym) performed a monitoring over one thousand and half (1500) websites, where they supervised illegal content on several web pages, between Friday 24 and Monday 27, according to the Ministry of Science, Technology and Intermediate Industries on its website.
In this regard, 48% of the pages, which names aren't specified, presented “illegal publication of electoral content” that according to the organism, was solved with actions oriented to the “preservation of the integrity and availability of the information published“, points VenCERT.
[…] The pages hosted on WordPress can be accessed from Spain, and the UK; they can even be seen from Venezuela using a proxy system, according to Sergio Almendro, director of zuplemento.com

However, the same website stated later, in a different post, that “a font” from CANTV informed:

WordPress.com está realizando labores de mantenimiento y backup en sus servidores, por lo que algunos blogs estaban caidos. Esta caída se alojó en los proxys de CANTV y, como no nos dimos cuenta de la falla, se quedó alojada allí. Es por eso que los blogs, aunque recuperarun su status de “en funcionamiento” igual aparecían como “tumbados” si se trataba de acceder desde el servicio ABA. Ya estamos limpiando los proxys. Es una falla ajena a nosotros y no tuvo que ver con las elecciones. Fue una coincidencia”

WordPress is performing maintenance and backup Works on its servers, and therefore some blogs were down. This downfall hosted itself in CANTV proxys, and, as we didn't notice the failure, it stayed hosted there. That's why the blogs, even though recovered its “functioning” status, still appear as “down” if they were attempted to be reached from the ABA service. We're already cleaning the proxys. It's a failure foreign to us and was not related to elections. It was a coincidence.

Twitter user @jesusbolivar, stated through a public GoogleDoc:

No es un problema de wordpress, ya que si el problema fuesen ellos, no se pudiese entrar a ningun blog desde ningun proveedor, ya que independientemente de si visitas los blogs desde Movistar, Digitel o CANTV igual “caes” en lb.wordpress.com, adicional a esto, el problema tampoco son los proxys de CANTV ya que al contrario de lo expuesto en el articulo de Codigo Venezuela las fallas de este tipo no se “alojan” en los proxys -la duracion de los caches es de minutos y ya llevamos dos dias sin acceso a estas paginas-

It is not a wordpress problem, because if WP was the main problem, it wasn't possible to access any wordpress hoisted blog from any provider, no matter if you visit these blogs from Movistar, Digitel or CANTV, you still “fall” in lb.wordpress.com; besides that, the problem also is not related to CANTV proxys, since, on the contrary of what's exposed in Codigo Venezuela's article, this kind of failures aren't “hosted” in the proxys –the duration of caches is in minutes and we've been without access to this pages for two days already-.

In the afternoon of Wednesday 29, access to all WordPress-hosted blogs was suddenly reestablished, without further explanation.

Venezuela: Government vs. Social Networks, the battle continues.

Marianne Diaz — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 06:41:17 +0000

Last week, the President of the Media Commission of the National Assembly, Manuel Villalba, declared that tomorrow, September 21, he’ll file a petition before the National Prosecutor against several websites (link: ES). The cause: during a spate of deceases of people belonging to the high spheres of the government, several people expressed their enjoyment for the deaths, in diverse social networks and forums. Regarding this matter, legislator Gustavo Capella declared that this investigation should also encompass twitter and facebook.

As you might remember, this isn’t the first time that representatives of the Venezuelan government make public statements against social networks. Also, a few days ago, an engineer of the state electric company (Corpoelec) was arrested under the charges of “public incitement to hatred” (link: ES), for posting a twitter message containing an edited picture of the President, where he has wounds in the face, allegedly showing how he could be killed. Days later, he was released under probation.

Venezuela: Two people arrested for tweeting about banking rumors

Marianne Diaz — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 12:24:54 +0000

After menacing twitter users for their online activities a couple weeks ago, last thursday two persons were arrested, accused of spreading false rumors about the banking system. Those arrested were identified as Luis Acosta Oxford (41), and Carmen Cecilia Nares Castro (35).

Wilmer Flores Trosel, head of the national investigative police unit, declared that there were seized two hard drives, two portable information devices and a cell phone. He also stated that this arrests were the result of a four-month investigation in order to find responsibles to the rumors regarding the national banking system.

These arrests were made under Article 448 of the General Banking Law, which states:

Artículo 448.Las personas naturales o jurídicas que difundan noticias falsas o empleen otros medios fraudulentos capaces de causar distorsiones al sistema bancario nacional que afecten las condiciones económicas del país, serán penados con prisión de nueve (9) a once (11) años.

Art. 448. Any natural or juridical person who spreads fake news or uses other fraudulent methods capable of causing distortions to the national bank system which affect the economic conditions of the country,will be punished with prison, from 9 to 11 years.

However, by the time of the arrest, Acosta Oxford (@leaoxford) had only 32 followers on Twitter, and Nares Castro doesn't appear to even have an account in the microblogging site. This tweet from @leaoxford's timeline has been identified as the one which send him to jail:

Gentlemen, don't say you were not told, withdraw [your money] today from BANESCO, there are few days, you were told”.

It remains unclear how two users with so little influence could be responsible of affecting the economic conditions of the country. Blogger Arnaldo Espinoza made an analysis of the possible influence of Acosta Oxford's tweet, in Código Venezuela (ES), stating that:

“(…) la detención de Acosta Oxford es un caso típico de amedrentamiento hacia una comunidad que crece exponencialmente y donde existe plena libertad para expresar ideas, pensamientos u opiniones -tampoco es que el tweet se diferencia mucho de otras cosas que se escuchan en esta red social, desde “ollas podridas del gobierno” hasta silencios comprados-. Los 32 followers de Acosta Oxford seguro estarán extrañados por su desaparición. Lo que al resto de la comunidad tuitera preocupa es que existe un constante monitoreo sobre lo que dicen o hacen todos, para pescar al siguiente chivo expiatorio.”

“Acosta Oxford's arrest is a classic case of intimidation into a community that is growing exponentially and where there is full freedom to express ideas, thoughts or opinions -the tweet is not much different from other things that are heard in this social network, from “government's rotten pots” to bought silence.(…) What concerns the rest of the twitter community, is that there is constant monitoring of what they all say or do, in order to catch the next scapegoat”

However, detained face a sentence of nine to eleven years of emprisonment, and the usual climate of anxiety seems to have spread to the Internet.

Venezuela: Twitterers, bloggers and forum members, in the eye of the justice.

Marianne Diaz — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 17:23:14 +0000

The long wave of interventions to banks in Venezuela [EN], has led, inevitably, to lots of rumors about which banking institution is soon to be intervened. The Federal Bank, seized last week, is the twelfth bank intervened by the government since November 2009.
A week ago, venezuelan Vice-President, Elias Jaua, declared that President Hugo Chávez ordered the Ministry of Interior and Justice to initiate a thorough and systematic investigation in order to identify the sources of the rumors about the instability of private banking. Jaua stated that generation of rumors is a “crime punishable by imprisonment from nine to 11 years” and warned that participants of “digital forums that have become centers of political conspiracy” will be punished. Meanwhile, the Minister for Interior and Justice, Tarek El Aissami, said “We are on the trail of those responsible for manipulation and terrorism.“
Likewise, the chairman of the Banking Association of Venezuela, Juan Carlos Escotet, supported the measure, and warned that online social networks “in no way can lend themselves to spread rumors that are expressly provided as a crime under the General Banking Law.” Escotet added that those who generate such information, “by any means, Twitter, text messages, or through any media” would be committing a crime.
The above mentioned General Banking Law states the following:

Artículo 448.Las personas naturales o jurídicas que difundan noticias falsas o empleen otros medios fraudulentos capaces de causar distorsiones al sistema bancario nacional que afecten las condiciones económicas del país, serán penados con prisión de nueve (9) a once (11) años.

Although it's evident that with every right comes a responsibility, several users have manifested their disagreement with this announcement, specially because of its consequences over the online behavior, caused by fear. We may recall that Chavez's previous threatens [ES] against those bloggers who published information about the black market of dollar in Venezuela, led to the self-shutdown of the most popular blogs on the subject in the country. However, the venezuelan twitter community remains very unpleased with this measure:

Now it will be punished to spread rumors about banks on #Twitter. And where is the inquest for the rumors that #Chávez spreads? #Venezuela

In Venezuela, whoever says a rumor about banks, can be imprisoned faster than a confessed murderer and thief. #insolituniverse

Apparently, it's not the law itself what is bugging twitterers and bloggers, but the government's alleged disproportion in choosing which behaviors apply it to, and that it seems that lately, citizen's online behavior is more of a concern than hunger, poverty and insecurity. However, it might be the suitable moment to remember that several websites, such as Noticiero Digital, already had policies regarding suspension of their forum users who speaked about banking rumors [ES].
If anything, this isn't the first time something similar happens. Last year, in Guatemala, a citizen was arrested for the crime of “fiscal panic [ES]“, and in Seúl, a blogger was also imprisoned for spreading financial rumors [ES].