Censorship by Venezuela’s largest ISP

Global Voices author Marianne Díaz reported that quelacreo (NSFW), a site that features photographs and video of violent sex crimes, was censored by CANTV, the government-controlled ISP that provides Internet service to over three quarters of the national population.

In the Venezuelan Twittersphere, many condemned the blockage of the site as evidence of increasing restrictions to free expression by the government. Others expressed relief, reasoning that the sadistic quality of the site’s imagery was “too strong” for public viewing. While users may still access the site through other ISPs in Venezuela, advocates of media freedom called this another example of the increasingly monopolistic power that the state has wielded over print and digital media.

Since the nationalization of CANTV in 2007, criticism has mounted over the investigation of news site Noticiero Digital, and the formation of a “Communicational Guerilla,” a group of high school students who aid the government by “fighting imperialism” in online social networking sites.