Maduro complains TikTok ‘censored’ his account when he was live (video)

Nicolás Maduro confirmed on Saturday that they had closed his account on TikTok – owned by Chinese company ByteDance – while he was broadcasting, although he did not clarify whether it was a temporary measure, since his profile was active and he had recently uploaded videos.

“We were broadcasting live on TikTok (…) and they censored our account. They closed my account. What is the fear? (…) Do you think that censoring me on social networks will stop this city? Nobody stops this people, not TikTok, not thousands of TikToks,” Maduro said during an event in the state of Anzoategui (northeast of the country).

On May 21, Maduro proposed creating a new communications system after denouncing censorship and claiming to be “persecuted” and “blocked” on social networks, including that of Chinese Zhang Yiming, one of the world’s richest men, according to Forbes magazine.

Yet he occupies hours a day in state media, which broadcast his rallies live and on tape, as well as other proselytizing activities focused on the presidential election scheduled for July 28, while the other candidates – all from the opposition – have no space in public media.

On June 26, the National College of Journalists denounced the closure of a total of 405 media outlets in Venezuela over the past two decades, as part of a “state policy” against “freedom of expression and the practice of journalism.”

According to the Inter-American Press Association, Venezuela is still in an “almost complete media blackout,” because it said in April that television channels and radio stations were “silenced.”

With information from EFE