Venezuela accuses Facebook of “media dictatorship” for blocking Maduro

The government of Venezuela rated Sunday as “A new arbitrariness” Facebook’s decision to block the page of President Nicolás Maduro for 1 month for promoting a drug called Carvativir that, it says, cures the COVID-19.

Facebook removed a video of Maduro on the remedy for violating company policy prohibiting false claims that may prevent or aid the recovery of an infected patient, a spokesperson told Reuters. The company added that it follows the guidelines of the World Health Organization (WHO), according to which there is no drug against the disease.

”This constitutes not only acts of censorship, typical of a new media dictatorship, but also evidences an extension of the blockade and boycott that the North American empire illegally applies against our people ”, said a statement posted by the Minister of Communication and Information, Freddy Ñáñez, on his account on the social network Twitter.

Later, Maduro used his wife Cilia Flores’s Facebook account to transmit his weekly COVID-19 balance.

“We are going to be a tough nut to crack Facebook, you messed with Venezuela, Facebook”, added the president.

In the statement, the government added that it is not the first time that the social networks Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram messaging, to share photos and videos, sanction “discretionally “ the contents of Maduro.

Facebook declined to comment on the government statement.

The ministry added that Facebook notified the administrators of the page on Saturday of the removal of a video from Sunday, March 21, in which Maduro, during a balance of the country’s COVID-19, presented the drug.

“This confidential and private information (…) was supplied without consent to the Reuters news agency, which was in charge of giving it a tinge of political discrimination”Added the ministry.

A Facebook spokesperson told Reuters on Saturday that the page was blocked for 30 days for “repeated violations “ of its rules and that its administrators were notified of the policy violation. Maduro’s account on the Instagram platform is not affected.

In the video, Maduro says that Carvativir, which he calls “gothic (drops) miraculous “ of the 19th century Venezuelan doctor José Gregorio Hernández, who was beatified by the Catholic Church, can be used preventively and as a therapeutic against the coronavirus.

Official figures from Venezuela on Saturday showed 155,663 coronavirus cases and 1,555 deaths, although critics and opponents say this figure is likely higher due to limited testing capacity.