
WhatsApp blocks channel of Spanish Podemos Party days before election - dredmorbius
https://www.rt.com/news/457465-whatsapp-blocked-podemos-spain-elections/
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dredmorbius
I'm well aware that RT is widely regarded as highly slanted, and regard it so
myself, however it's the only news posting of this I can find, information is
breaking and largely in Spanish.

My original source is a Spanish-language tweet by Podemos:
[https://twitter.com/juanmalpr/status/1120459372994420736?s=1...](https://twitter.com/juanmalpr/status/1120459372994420736?s=19)

Via Mastodon:

[https://social.weho.st/@anarcat/101988237614581646](https://social.weho.st/@anarcat/101988237614581646)

It's quite possible that any moderation/censorship by Whatsapp/Facebook and/or
the response are elements of the epistemic battle here, and the full picture
is not clear as of this writing.

~~~
Ultramanoid
Context : Podemos ( "we can" ) is a relatively new mainstream leftist party.
There's also the traditional centre-left PSOE, traditional centre-right PP,
'new' centre-right Ciudadanos ( "citizens" ) and new far-right Vox ( projected
to enter Parliament with as much as 10% of votes ), disputing this general
election on a national level.

PSOE is projected to win the most votes but not a majority, Podemos would
enter in a coalition government with them. Coalitions of right vs. left
parties are almost equal in projected votes though, so it's anyone's guess how
this will actually end, and of course there's the question of whether the far
right will make it into government on a national level. They have in one of
the autonomous regions, Andalusia. ( Spain is a federation in all but name. )

A few days from voting, one would expect this kind of move being done on Vox
rather than any of the other four mainstream parties, given Vox's extreme
right wing xenophobic rhetoric and destabilizing discourse.

Strange to say the least.

~~~
dredmorbius
Quite, yes, and thanks.

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Ultramanoid
From arguably the main Spanish newspaper, El País : ( In Spanish. )

[https://elpais.com/politica/2019/04/23/actualidad/1556024164...](https://elpais.com/politica/2019/04/23/actualidad/1556024164_805148.html)

Basically, WhatsApp seems to be calling their use of the platform 'automated
spam' which doesn't really look like an accurate assessment.

Their use of it is the same as from the other political parties involved in
the election. Not clear what prompted this.

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usr1987
Facebook at it again!

