
Venezuela Blocks Twitter as Opposition Stage New Protests - throwaway_yy2Di
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2014-02-14/twitter-says-venezuela-blocks-its-images-amid-protest-crackdown
======
hcarvalhoalves
It has begun. The president has prohibited protests, and went on TV calling
his supporters against protestors, claiming they are against democracy and
that he's suffering a coup-d'etat. A restraining order was issued against the
opposition candidate. He's going full dictator now.

Expect similar social unrest, and the same tactic from the government (blaming
the protesters as violent, calling then "right-wing fascists") in the rest of
latin america as their economies start tanking as deep as Venezuela. Argentina
is on the brink of it. Brazil is 4-6 years from it if it keeps being
brainwashed and electing incompetent, corrupt left-wingers.

~~~
spikels
Maduro declared all protests illegal then a few hours later called for his
supporters to protest against his enemies. This guys is literally destroying a
nation.

I agree with you on Argentina but Brazil is probably a different story - not
as corrupt and not as crazy. Peru and Ecuador are much closer to Venezuela's
and Argentina's situation.

The amazing thing is how long these situations can go on. The combination of
the survival skills of millions of people and their desire to avoid civil war
along the lines of Syria mean this can continue for a very long time.

~~~
fiatjaf
Nobody would thought Argentina was on the brink of it 2 years ago. Brazil is a
mess.

~~~
rbanffy
Argentina has been courting disaster in one form or another for at least 20
years.

------
kennywinker
One of the downsides of centralized services like Twitter. Reminds me of Tim
Berners-Lee's call to re-decentralize the web
[http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-02/06/tim-
berners-l...](http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-02/06/tim-berners-lee-
reclaim-the-web)

------
rafaelm
They also forced the cable operators to take the only TV channel actually
informing about the protests off the air (NTN24).

Right now twitter is working normally, but the govt keeps running these small
tests, taking websites offline, in preparation for a complete blackout since
the only way to find out right now what is going on is through the internet.

------
higherpurpose
Some images from the protest:

[http://imgur.com/a/zj4J9](http://imgur.com/a/zj4J9)

Dead people in this one:

[https://imgur.com/gallery/4GgOL](https://imgur.com/gallery/4GgOL)

------
vinalia
Maybe this would be a good opportunity for university students over there to
test out a network like Freenet for communicating? FMS, Frost, or Freemail
could be used for messaging back and forth in place of e-mails and social
networks. A couple people could build a jSite for news
stories/pictures/videos. I don't think groups of students would have that hard
of a time adding each other as peers under darknet mode. The docs make it
pretty easy to switch over [1].

If they can't talk freely to one-another over emails or popular social
networks like Facebook and Twitter... maybe they shouldn't use them.

[1]
[https://freenetproject.org/documentation.html](https://freenetproject.org/documentation.html)

------
pmelendez
I am surprised about reading this at HN before than Venezuelan press. I hope
there is not censorship at the level too.

~~~
asdfologist
If they're censoring Twitter, don't you think they'd try to censor domestic
media as well?

~~~
pmelendez
They would have to shutdown the whole press (not that they haven't done that
before), but the website is still there and still publishing opposition
friendly news

------
higherpurpose
This is why we need to use decentralized alternatives to our most popular
services, in this case Twister (P2P Twitter alternative):

[http://twister.net.co/](http://twister.net.co/)

------
middleclick
If you know any Venezuelans, tell them about Tor.

[https://www.torproject.org/](https://www.torproject.org/)

~~~
rafaelm
Yes I have been spreading Tor for a couple of days now. I started in my office
and friends. Last night one of the biggest Venezuelan twitter accounts
retweeted me too, so many people are aware now.

I need to find a similar solution for mobile phones since most people here
access twitter using the phones. Any suggestions?

~~~
middleclick
Have a look at Orbot.

[https://guardianproject.info/apps/orbot/](https://guardianproject.info/apps/orbot/)

It is Tor on Android devices.

~~~
rafaelm
I thought that was only for using the web on phones, but I just saw that it
also works with Twitter and any app that supports proxies. Thanks!

This is one of those times when I wish there was a simple, secure messaging
app for everyone. I don't know if apps like whisper or threema are 100% safe
so I'm wary about recommending them.

~~~
middleclick
If you are looking for a secure desktop IM client, look at Pidgin with OTR.

[https://securityinabox.org/en/pidgin_main](https://securityinabox.org/en/pidgin_main)

For Android, I had probably trust anything by Moxie. Plus, you don't need to
trust him - it's open source. Not that you have to verify it, but it's a good
chance it's more secure than closed-source products.

------
jlcx
Since commenters have already mentioned Tor, Freenet, Twister, and Tim
Berners-Lee's idea of re-decentralizing the web:
[https://github.com/redecentralize/alternative-
internet](https://github.com/redecentralize/alternative-internet)

------
vehementi
I know it's failed everywhere else in the world, but maybe internet censorship
will save _me_!

~~~
fuckpig
I know it's failed everywhere else in the world, but maybe Socialism/Communism
will work for us!

~~~
e12e
The problem with this idea, is the implication that Capitalism hasn't failed
people many places in the world already.

~~~
fiatjaf
"Capitalism" is not a system. Capitalism is life itself.

The system can be more socialistic or more free-marketist, that's the only
choice. And the more socialistic have failed more.

~~~
e12e
> "Capitalism" is not a system. Capitalism is life itself.

Of course it is a system. Just as feudalism is a system. It's a way in which
to organize distribution of abstracted wealth. You might claim that it's a
consequence of industrialization (and still be wrong, but at least make
sense).

Would you characterize the organization of the native North Americans as a
capitalist society, before the arrival of Europeans?

~~~
fiatjaf
Capitalism is just private property and voluntary contracts. It's impossible
to untie life from that.

Feudalism is a system, but it was built into capitalism. Feudal lords had land
as their property, they made voluntary contracts of their vassals: I'll
protect you and give you some land, you'll give some of your production to me.
There was also trade, merchants et cetera.

This applies to everything. The Native North Americans had private property
and various kinds of contracts -- which probably involved some communal
property and other stuff.

When there's some entity exercising coercion (non-voluntary contracts), that
entity is the State and there is socialism.

~~~
e12e
> Capitalism is just private property

Agreed. In particular, ownership of the means of production, land and natural
resources (and now extended to ownership of ideas, information and data [eg:
gene sequences that have been "discovered"]).

> and voluntary contracts.

I don't think we agree on what "voluntary" means.

> It's impossible to untie life from that.

"Life"? Are you trying to say that property isn't a social construct? How is
the concept of property relevant outside of a society?

> The Native North Americans had private property

"What is this you call property? It cannot be the earth, for the land is our
mother, nourishing all her children, beasts, birds, fish and all men. The
woods, the streams, everything on it belongs to everybody and is for the use
of all. How can one man say it belongs only to him?" -Massasoit

"We do not own the freshness of the air or the sparkle of the water. How can
you buy them from us?" -Sealth

------
tremols
Its beautiful how anonymous groups from everywhere specially from south
america are supporting us with the "tango down" operation, see #opvenezuela.

------
Eleutheria
Where are the champions of democracy when we need them most?

------
kimjotki2
But haven't Americans assassinate Hugo Chavez? Blocking the twitter seems to
be a necessary step to stop further influences from capitalistic sides.

~~~
asdfologist
Is this sarcastic?

~~~
pekk
No, idiots really think Hugo Chavez was incapable of dying without the help of
Americans

~~~
e12e
Assassinating elected presidents is so 1970s. Much better to corrupt the
bureaucracy...

