How the hegemony wants social networks to be…
You probably know about the strange case of the fake child kidnapping that has served as an excuse for Prosecutor General Luisa Ortega Diaz to propose to regulate social networks. Not that she has not tried to do so before…
Regardless of the strange circumstances that motivated her proposal, or the context in which her proposal was made public, what matters is that this new regulation is, for all practical purposes really unnecessary.
Why?
Because there’s already the legal framework for that. Back in 2010, the National Assembly changed the Social Responsibility Law for Radio and Television in order to include the Internet (and ergo, social networks).
There’s no excuse for the State not to act. Matter or fact, it already has.
People have been detained for posting photos online. Some Twitter users are already in jail, imprisoned since last year. Some political prisoners have been legally banned to use Twitter, and now using social media is even considered evidence of “violence”.
Still, there’s a seemingly-legit reason behind this proposal: Reinforcing the role of the communicational hegemony in Twitter.
After all, the hegemony has branched out with both a Vice-Ministry exclusively dedicated to social networks, and the so-called “TROPA” (the troop, nickname for pro-government organized Twitter users). Even Nicolas Maduro himself is following the online steps of the comandante eterno and called on his supporters to “defend the truth in the social networks”. But he’s not doing a great job so far, according to journalist Arnaldo Espinoza (a.k.a. Naldoxx, who recently wrote a guest post for Caracas Chronicles).
As Emi Duarte wrote recenly, the government is aggressively using social networks to push its non-stop campaign against the U.S. of A. And it’s part of the “bubble” the government has built on Twitter, like in this post from Financial Times’ Jonathan Wheatley, which presents how the official narrative gets more and more isolated from the general Venezuelan conversation.
Caracas Chronicles 
Yeah, Social Media is much tougher to crack down and regulate for any neo-dictatorships. TV, papers and Radio are a piece of cake. Twitter and FB, plus Smart Phones are another story.
– As you suggest, it’s a double-edged Sword.
– Problem is about half of Venezuelans left in Corruptzuela and over half of Chavistas, the poor, uneducate don’t even have computers to begin with, or know how to use any modern media. So the Masburros in power have that advantage, plus the intimidation/terror factor.
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And anyway, with Chavez’s “Fraudmatic”, Twitter will not matter much.
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con todo respeto y carino, esto–, ‘Because there’s already the legal framework for that’– supone algo que no existe..O sea que sigue no vale
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I guess you have trouble following links. Here’s what you can read when you click the link.
“En horas de la tarde de este lunes fueron aprobadas por la Plenaria de la Asamblea Nacional (AN) las reformas de la Ley de Responsabilidad en Radio, Televisión y Medios Electrónicos, que tiene por objeto establecer en la difusión y recepción de mensajes, la responsabilidad social de los prestadores de los servicios de radio y televisión, así como de los proveedores de medios electrónicos.”
Medios Electronicos, are the key words.
Further down we read:
Las disposiciones de la presente ley, se aplican a todo texto, imagen o sonido cuya difusión y recepción tengan lugar dentro del territorio de la República Bolivariana de Venezuela a través de:
1.- Servicios de radio: radiodifusión sonora amplitud modulada (AM), radiodifusión sonora en frecuencia modulada (FM), radiodifusión sonora por onda corta, radiodifusión sonora comunitaria de servicio público, sin fines de lucro y Servicios de producción nacional audio, difundidos a través de un servicio de difusión por suscripción.
2. Servicios de televisión: televisión UHF, televisión VHF, televisión comunitaria de servicio público, sin fines de lucro, y servicios de producción nacional audiovisual, difundidos a través de un servicio de difusión por suscripción.
3. Servicios de difusión por suscripción.
4. Medios electrónicos.
So I ask you, how long will it take the Supreme Court we are “blessed” with to rule that social media are “medios electronicos”
Go ahead and hold your breath, as it won’t take long.
And I say this with all “cariño y respeto”
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FWIW, it might be worth knowing that the Chinese —meaning Huawei, of course— already have the tropical version of the Golden Shield project (aka the great firewall of China) paid for, staffed and in place at the Bolivarian Cantv.
Although “Bolivarian Golden Shield”, or whatever it’s called handles both surveillance and censorship, so far we’ve only seen the fledgling efforts of the surveillance branch, which have handled the identification and arrest of those twitterers singled out like @inesitaterrible and @anonymuswar.
Things can only go downhill from here …
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These days, if you do a Google search on Venezuela news, you find that the media is now just as polarized as the population of Venezuela is (or was). There are actually more articles listed from TeleSur, RT, and the various extreme left-wing e-zines than there are from the mainstream media. And the differences in what is being reported about Venezuela are stark. By comparison, the pro-Chavista articles appear to be talking about a completely different universe.
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The chaburro wet dream: Where everybody believes the bullshit they spew 24/7, leaving them to steal and kill as much as they want.
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