Global Voices Advocacy » Sonia Doglio

Venezuela: Twitter user detained for spreading “destabilizing” information

Sonia Doglio — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 19:59:22 +0000

In the wake of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez's death last week, government authorities in Venezuela seem to have resumed taking action against freedom of expression online. On March 14, 2013, Lourdes Alicia Ortega Pérez was detained by the Scientific Penal and Criminal Investigation Corps (CICPC, by its Spanish acronym), for allegedly having “usurped the identity of an official of the Autonomous Service of Registries and Notaries” and having sent Tweets that authorities deemed “destabilizing [to] the country.”

Photo by mkhmarketing. (CC BY-2.0)

According to El Nacional [es], Ortega's Twitter username is @Ulilou and she has been registered since June 9th 2009. The newspaper stated that the offending Tweet was sent on March 8, at 8:20 pm, in response to a comment made by user @douglirodil, who asked what had killed President Hugo Chavez. Ortega replied: “I do not know but he has become a wax doll.”

The Interior and Justice Ministry posted a press release [es] on its website indicating that police seized Ortega's personal computer, “in which, through an account on the social network Twitter, [Ortega] sent rumors to influence the [public].”

Various incidents of online censorship have been reported from Venezuela in recent years. In a 2010 case similar to Ortega's, two Twitter users were detained by police for allegedly “spreading false rumors” about the banking system.

In the Venezuelan twittersphere, netizens have started using the hashtag #tuitdesestabilizador (#subversivetweet) for protesting Ortega's detention and, also, to make jokes and comments about the current political situation.

Piensen #tuitdesestabilizador

— Jacqueline Goldberg (@JacGoldberg) 14 de marzo de 2013

Think. #subversivetweet

En mi casa no hay agua #TuitDesestabilizador

— Ana (@anabelland) 14 de marzo de 2013

There's no water in my house. #subversivetweet

Capriles está bueno #TuitDesestabilizador

— Naky Soto (@Naky) 14 de marzo de 2013

Capriles is hot. #subversivetweet

Un ‘tweet’ te puede privar de la libertad en este país democrático…

— Simón Gómez-Guaimara (@simongomezg) 14 de marzo de 2013

A tweet can take away your freedom in this democratic country.

Gente, paren con ese TT de #tuitdesestabilizador porque el #CICPC nos pone presos, donde iran a meter a tanta gente? @prensacicpc

— Nana Suar'z(@NanasuarezD) 14 de marzo de 2013

People, stop it with the hashtag #subversivetweet because [if] the #CICPC puts us in jail, where are they gonna put so many people?

The Minister of Interior and Justice, Néstor Reverol, declared that they will “preserve peace and tranquility for the stability of the country” and said: “We will be vigilant, we will not allow an inch of destabilization.” According to the state news channel, VTV [es], Reverol also declared that authorities will continue “to monitor the messages of social networks that seek to destabilize the country.”

The Minister also stated that Ortega will be processed under Venezuela's Computer Crimes Act [es]. Ortega may also be vulnerable to 2010 law forbidding all Internet content that “fosters unrest among the citizenship or disturbs public order.”

Venezuela: State-owned ISP presumably blocks news website

Sonia Doglio — Fri, 18 May 2012 08:34:14 +0000

As of May 17th, Venezuelan netizens have reported through Twitter that the news website La Patilla might have been blocked by governmental ISP, Cantv.net.

La Patilla “Esta página web no está disponible” @la_patilla Que esta sucediendo?? Que Rumores son esos de Bloqueo??

— Angélica(@Angelical26) mayo 17, 2012

La Patilla “This website is not available”. Blockage? What is happening? What rumors are those of blockage?

Cantv está bloqueando algunos sitios web como @la_patilla, pueden reportar este y otros bloqueos en este sitio ow.ly/aZbLo

— Carlos Correa (@ccorreab) mayo 17, 2012

Cantv is blocking some websites such as La Patilla, you can report this and other blockages in this website http://t.co/vNtBXJtc

“La Patilla” is a blog-style website dedicated to general news, show business and entertainment, and owned by Alberto Ravell, journalist and co-founder of opposition news channel, Globovisión.
Presumably, the blockage might be related to the fact that the website published a video [es] and a live streaming of the prison of La Planta, where the last days there have been clashes between inmates and police authorities, which have been scarcely covered by official media.

Blackout informativo total en La Planta. Tumban @la_patilla para que no se vea el Ustream y después cortan la luz para que no transmita

— Arnaldo Espinoza (@Naldoxx) mayo 17, 2012

Total informative blackout in La Planta. They take down La Patilla so the Ustream can not be seen and afterwards they cut the power so it can not be transmitted.

Los gafos de Cantv creen que van a resolver la crisis de la Planta bloqueando el portal de La Patilla

— Alonso Moleiro (@amoleiro) mayo 17, 2012

Cantv's fools believe they're gonna solve the crisis of La Planta by blocking La Patilla's website.

According to users, the site can be accesed through other ISPs and also using proxies. The website itself published an article [es] where they stated that they had changed the website IP after the complaints, and that this second IP was also blocked fifteen minutes later. Allegedly, they have sent a communication to Cantv.net declaring that:

Como medio de comunicación procedemos de manera formal a notificarles la situación. De no recibir respuesta procederemos a hacer una denuncia formal de la situación.

As a news media we proceed to formally notify you the situation. If we not receive an answer we'll proceed to file a formal complaint of the situation.

This would not be the first time that Cantv.net is accused of blocking a website. In previous occasions, netizens have reported difficulties to access Blogger and WordPress, amongst other websites.

Venezuela: Cyberactivist Luis Carlos Díaz harassed and threatened by “hackers”

Sonia Doglio — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 22:02:39 +0000

For the second time in only four months, Venezuelan journalist and cyberactivist Luis Carlos Díaz is being harassed through his Twitter account and his mobile phone, by a so-called group of “hackers”, who act under the name of N33, and would be the same group of people that in previous months have hacked into the Twitter and e-mail accounts of about thirty different Venezuelan personalities, including journalists Sebastiana Barráez, Ibéyise Pacheco, political humorist Laureano Márquez, activist Rocío San Miguel and writer Leonardo Padrón, amongst many others. This group is integrated by anonymous people who declare themselves supporters of President Hugo Chávez.
Last December, several of these personalities issued a communication [es] addressing the Presidents who were at Caracas attending the CELAC Summit held by Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez:

Las cuentas de venezolanos con visiones críticas ante las políticas del gobierno, ubicados en distintos campos como el periodismo, la economía, la vida universitaria, los derechos humanos, la cultura y la justicia, entre otros, han sido “hackeadas” por individuos que asumen esa tarea agresora como un mecanismo de defensa del proceso político impulsado por el presidente Hugo Chávez.

The accounts of Venezuelans who have critical views of the government's politics, coming from different areas like journalism, economics, university life, human rights, culture and justice, among others, have been “hacked” by individuals who assume this aggressor task as a defense mechanism for the political process led by President Hugo Chávez.

Iria Puyosa (@NSC) tweeted a screen capture of the Twitter account from where the menaces are coming:

Tweets say: “What I want you is to answer [the phone] @LuisCarlos, do you dare?”, “Paraco [paramilitary] is your [whore] mother @luisfcocabezas @luiscarlos”, “Answer [the phone] @LuisCarlos, I'm calling you…”, “You're null @LuisCarlos and you're a Pirate… financed by Church, by pirate on the sense of a cheap copy of something that's original”, “Your article is basic @LuisCarlos, coming from a so-called expert in informatic security. You're null and you're going Down”

Díaz, besides being a human rights activist and GV contributor, also works as Coordinator of the Communication and Networks of the Gumilla Center, a center for research and social action led by the Society of Jesus in Venezuela.

On Twitter, users have pronounced against the harassment suffered by Luis Carlos:

@Jogreg: @N33DOS està acosando telefonicamente al pana @LuisCarlos. Ya basta!

@N33DOS is harassing my friend @LuisCarlos by phone. Enough!

@NSC: Parapolicías le ofrecen “trato VIP” a @LuisCarlos http://bit.ly/x9jvIL Si se equivocan x allí la respuesta también será VIP y global.

Para-policemen offer @LuisCarlos “VIP treatment”. http://bit.ly/x9jvIL If they go wrong that way the response will also be VIP and global.

@acianela: El inaceptable acoso a @LuisCarlos RT @IPYS Venezuela: Periodista y ciberactivista es amenazado telefónicamente

The unacceptable harassment against @LuisCarlos RT @IPYS Venezuela: Journalist and cyberactivist is harassed by phone.

Luis Carlos Díaz had written about this escalade before. In this article [es], from September 2011, he says:

La acción dejó de ser una travesura cuando el grupo N33 emitió un comunicado, leído en el canal del Estado, VTV, en el que “aclaraban” que accionaron por razones políticas en contra de cuentas que criticaban al presidente de la República y por lo tanto cualquier opositor con visibilidad mediática estaría en la mira.

The action stopped being a mischief when the group N33 issued a statement, which was read in the State channel, VTV, where they “cleared up” that they were acting by political reasons against account that criticized the President and therefore any opponent with media visibility would be targeted.

It's been stated that the group, even when they call themselves “hackers”, should not be considered this way, since they apparently obtained the first sets of password using techniques such as social engineering and by mere guessing passwords that were weak to begin with. However, since they have taken over the account of a recognized Venezuelan “white hat” hacker RaFa Núñez, it's now being suspected that they might be acting under the collaboration of a Venezuelan government-owned ISP.
In a public message [es] that has been replicated across different Venezuelan blogs, Luis Carlos has said:

Nos enfrentamos a una nueva forma de ciberguerra más focalizada, de desactivar individuos sin mancharse mucho las manos, de afectar la libertad de expresión en Internet y acabar con las críticas gubernamentales. Este es una suerte de paramilitarismo digital, en el cual se buscan personas externas, e incluso espontáneos, para que eliminen gente en redes sociales.

We are facing a new class of cyberwar, more focalised, of deactivating individuals without staining much their hands, of affecting freedom of speech on Internet and ending critiques against government. This is a sort of digital paramilitarism, in which they seek outsiders, and even spontaneous ones, to eliminate people in social networks.

Venezuela: Troubles to access Blogger.com

Sonia Doglio — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 15:11:15 +0000

During all the month of August, Venezuelan bloggers have been complaining about difficulties to access Blogger.com services. A thread was opened [es] in Google support forums, according to which, traceroutes made by users are giving different kind of responses, being the most frequent one “Destination host unreachable”.
According to users, the problems are intermittent and are preventing them from entering their dashboards and their own blogs. Also, they have said that it's possible to access Blogger using the alternative Google's DNS, when the problem presents.
Users report that this has ocurred before, and there are other threads, from 2010, reporting similar issues. However, the problem never has lasted this long, and never before caught the attention of the mainstream media. A few days ago, one of the main Venezuelan newspapers, Últimas Noticias [es], reported:

Según las denuncias, se está produciendo una limitación en los servidores DNS de Cantv en Venezuela que dificulta el acceso de usuarios y blogueros al famoso sitio Blogger.com perteneciente a Google, donde se crean los conocidos “blogspot”.

According to reports, there is a narrowing in the DNS servers of CANTV in Venezuela, which impedes the access of users to the famous Blogger.com site owned by Google, where people create the famous “blogspot” [blogs].

On Twitter, users have expressed their concern:

@euglidesgarcia: En VENEZUELA hay problemas para acceder a las paginas de Blogger… Y no hay quien de respuesta o posibles razones de esta situación…!!!

@euglidesgarcia: In Venezuela there are troubles to access Blogger pages… And no one gives answers or possible reasons for this situation…!!!

@concienciavial: @googledevlatam saludos.Desd Venezuela pregunto: ¿por q tantos problemas para cargar blogger desd cualquier navegador?es aquí o son ustedes?

@concienciavial: @googledevlatam Hi, from Venezuela I ask: why all the issues to load Blogger from every browser? is it here or is it you?

Citizens claim that, even when the problems have been profusely reported to CANTV (the main, government-owned, Venezuelan ISP), the company has not provided any answer, nor have they solved the issue.