On Sunday, as Guaido addressed the nation, access to Twitter’s live-streaming video app Periscope was blocked for the 12 minutes of his speech. Last week, as Guaido called for anti-Maduro street protests, social media platforms including Facebook and YouTube were largely knocked offline by the state communications provider CANTV, according to internet watchdog group NetBlocks.

Confirmed: Periscope, YouTube, Facebook and Instagram briefly inaccessible in #Venezuela from 1:02AM to 1:14AM UTC (9:02PM to 9:14PM VET) coinciding with Juan Guaidó live-streamed speech #KeepItOnhttps://t.co/nHAY8vznIG pic.twitter.com/nGBJo86DBl

— NetBlocks.org (@netblocks) January 28, 2019

The internet is crucial to Guaido’s ability to rally his supporters because the Maduro regime controls almost all the television and radio stations.

Cesar Miguel Rondon, one of the country’s best known radio-news anchors, said he would go off the air this week due to restrictions by Venezuela’s telecom regulator Conatel.

“I’ve been victim of pure and harsh censorship, and it shows the fragility of a dictatorship in the face of the truth we are able tell,” Rondon said in a video posted on Instagram.

While his station, Union Radio, declined to comment on instructions it has received from Conatel, the regulator has warned journalists at private radio stations not to mention Guaido, discuss the number of people killed or talk about any matter that could cause “uneasiness,” according to three people with direct information about the situation.

The government, which has long clashed with private media outlets, has increased its effort to suppress news since the rise of Guaido, whose claim to the presidency has the backing of the U.S., Canada, the U.K. and most Latin American countries. Following a 2002 overthrow attempt that led to the brief ouster of Maduro’s mentor, the late Hugo Chavez, dozens of radio stations and a handful of cable channels were closed as Chavez largely blamed the outlets for the botched coup.

One of Venezuela’s biggest dailies and few remaining Maduro critics, El Nacional, stopped running its print version last month, blaming prolonged and ongoing government harassment and a lack of advertisers due to the country’s crippled economy. A shell of its former version remains online.

“There’s not a lot of media to get informed. I sometimes hear what’s happening because I go on the internet and Google for news,” said Daysy Serpa, a 38-year-old shopkeeper walking through a shopping center in Eastern Caracas. “There’s not even papers to read anymore.”

In the Jose Felix Ribas slum, the message of enforced silence has been received. A week after the attack, the black-clad men had left, but the chaotic and vibrant street life was subdued. On Tuesday, passers-by walked quietly, looking suspiciously at visitors. Doors closed on their approach.

— With assistance by Andrew Rosati

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-02-04/trump-era-s-biggest-winner-is-jeff-bezos-presidential-nemesis