Venezuela blocks social media as political unrest rises - report

Venezuela has been experiencing intermittent cuts to social media access on platforms such as Facebook, Periscope and YouTube as political turmoil increases in the South American country, according to a report by digital rights group Netblocks.

Some cuts to internet access have coincided with recent speeches by opposition leader Juan Guaidó (pictured) and self-declared interim president, the head of the country's national assembly, Netblocks added.

Venezuela's state-owned internet provider CANTV has been behind the disruptions, the report added, including one over the weekend that lasted over 12 minutes.

"Platform disruptions affecting Periscope, YouTube, Instagram and Facebook have been detected on state provider CANTV (AS8048) during a politically significant live-streamed speech by Juan Guaidó, 27 January 9:02PM local time, with interruptions lasting 12 minutes," Netblocks reported.

The disruptions likely had an impact on viewership and audience figures for the speech, it added.

Miguel Febres, a Caracas-based business owner, told BNamericas vía Facebook that the cuts have been limited to CANTV broadband ABA subscribers, while other ISP providers have remained unaffected.

César Oropeza, an independent filmmaker also living in Caracas, added that frequently spotty and slow internet connections make it difficult to determine if access difficulties come from service cuts or government censorship.

Venezuela's telecoms infrastructure has been hit by severe underinvestment in recent years, as well as from lack of maintenance and infrastructure theft, as economic restrictions and electricity blackouts play havoc on hard-to-replace equipment.