Netizen Report: Venezuela’s Conflict Moves From the Streets to the Internet.

On the night of June 28, internet users across Venezuela reported that multiple major web and social media sites had gone dark. According to the digital rights organization Venezuela Inteligente: DNS servers of the State’s Internet Service Provider CANTV were not responding to the DNS requests on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and Periscope, preventing users to access these platforms.An hour later, users were able to access those sites again. This wave of censorship comes in a moment when Venezuela’s government is facing record levels of public opposition and unrest, and a rapidly escalating economic crisis that has led to widespread hunger and threats to public health countrywide. Internet access has significantly deteriorated since May 2016, when the government declared a (still ongoing) state of emergency and officially authorized online content filtering. In May 2017, the Index on Censorship published evidence of 41 websites being blocked in the country ... READ MORE