What is happening with the internet in Venezuela?

Victor Becerra
Jul 23, 2017 · 4 min read

Although it is true that in Venezuela, the government has decreed access to and use of the Internet as a priority policy for the cultural development of Venezuela (Decree №825 of 10.05.2000), internet regulation is scarce, since there is no law Particular for regulation or access to the internet. The legislation of the Internet is blurred in different laws whose subject has to do somehow with electronic means. However, the Law on Social Responsibility in Radio and Television is one of the legislative mechanisms most used to limit the Freedom of Expression of Venezuelans on the Internet.

The National Telecommunications Commission (CONATEL), the agency that regulates compliance with this law, is the one that determines with great powers the great part of the restrictions and censures to digital media.

In Venezuela, electronic media are widely used to criticize the government, so some citizens have been prosecuted for sending text messages or publishing on social networks written that the Justice considered to be against the government or the stability of the country, such as Hacking against the Twitter account of Miguel Pizarro, deputy of the National Assembly that shows opposition to government policies, Pizarro’s tweets have been replaced by messages and images of adepts to the Government of Maduro. The portal Maduradas.com, page dedicated to the publication of news and critical articles to the government has been blocked by private and public service providers.

Another example of limitation of access to information and freedom of expression is in the law of computer crimes, which in its article 11 defines computer espionage as “Who improperly obtains, reveals or disseminates the data or information contained in a system that Using information technologies or any of its components, will be punished with imprisonment of four to eight years and a fine of four hundred to eight hundred tax units.The penalty shall be increased by one-third to one-half if the offense provided for in this article is committed In order to obtain some kind of benefit for themselves or for another. “

This article violates the freedom to access information because it does not discriminate whether such information disseminated should be confidential or personal, but leaves open clauses to anyone who obtains information contained in a computer system.

In short, while the Venezuelan government’s word states share the values ​​and notions of a free and open Internet, in practice it has developed all legal and technological mechanisms to restrict access to information and freedom of expression of citizens By electronic means.

Since its enactment more than a decade ago, the Law on Social Responsibility in Radio, Television and Electronic Media — Law RESORTE — in practice has been interpreted as a normative instrument that empowers the President of the Republic to designate the Board of Directors of the National Telecommunications Commission — organ of interpretation and application of the RESORTE Law, including its General Manager. (Article 20). Formally, this power is enshrined in the Organic Law of Telecommunications (LOT) in Article 40, which states: “The Board of Directors shall be composed of the Director General of CONATEL, who shall preside and four Directors, who shall be freely appointed and removed Of the President of the Republic “. This clearly means that the governing body for telecommunications in Venezuela lacks the minimum guarantees of independence and impartiality and has consistently shown itself over the years. About the LOT: http://www.conatel.gob.ve/files/leyo.pdf

When it comes to criminalizing tweets, blocking web portals or specific content and applications, revealing private information on the Internet, hacking electronic accounts, or simply “monitoring” online activity, among a myriad of restrictions, the Venezuelan State has frequently invoked the article 27 of the RESORTE Act — extremely discretionary — according to which: “In radio, television and electronic media services, the dissemination of messages that: 1. incite or promote hatred and intolerance for religious reasons , Politics, by gender difference, by racism or xenophobia 2. Encourage or promote apology 3. Create war propaganda 4. Encourage citizenship or disturb public order 5. Do not know The legitimately constituted authorities 6. Induce the homicide 7. Encourage or promote the breach of the current legal system The mediators Electronic devices must establish mechanisms to restrict, without delay, the dissemination of disseminated messages that are subsumed in the prohibitions contained in this Article, when requested by the National Telecommunications Commission in the exercise of its powers. […] “.

About the RESORTE Act: http://www.conatel.gob.ve/files/leyrs06022014.pdf

The articles cited cement the authoritarian base of telecommunications in Venezuela and under its protection are innovated every day possible forms of intervention against freedom of expression and access to information. As a recent sample, last month (January 2017), the President of the Republic — no less — on the pretext of defending children from the “cultural war of social networks,” ordered the government to study the problem of the internet “So that social networks are positive for society and do not harm anyone.”

See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3g3OnQqgWXM

In the foregoing tone, a strong pattern persists in Venezuela where stigmatizing or hostile statements by senior officials against the media, journalists, or ICTs are followed within a few hours or days by restrictions on freedom of expression. Emblematic of this tendency is that of RCTV, which, as is well known, has a judgment in favor of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights).

Currently, the State is studying the feasibility of regulating social networks via the Executive Branch, probably with the undercover objective of undermining the few guarantees for freedom of expression that exist in the country.

Thus, the dichotomy between the State’s Communication Project and the legal-political philosophy that inspires the Free and Open Internet is palpable.

Victor Becerra

Written by

Psicologo Social, firme creyente del codigo abierto como modelo para crear una sociedad mas transparente y empoderada. Organizador de TEDxUCV

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