News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Thurs. Jan. 9, 2020: Twitter has suspended more than a dozen accounts associated with Venezuela’s government and military, including the OPEC nation’s oil ministry and the armed forces’ operational command.
Venezuelan officials criticized the move shortly after the accounts were first suspended on Tuesday, without explanation or any announcement from Twitter.
The social media giant suspended the accounts of numerous Venezuelan government institutions, including the country’s Army, Navy, National Guard, Air Force, Central Bank, Finance Ministry, Oil Ministry, National Center for Information Technology (CNTI) and the National Commission for Information Technology.
The accounts of government figures like Victor Clark, the governor of Venezuela’s Falcon state; former Bolivarian National Army Forces General Commander Jesus Suarez; and Freddy Bernal, the coordinator of the country’s subsidized food distribution program, the Local Committees for Supply and Production (CLAP), were also shut down along with Red Radio Venezuela, the presidential press office and the press office for the mayor of Caracas.
Twitter in a statement Wednesday said the service has “proactive systems” which aim to detect “platform manipulations,” but that such systems can commit errors which account owners are welcome to appeal.
