Venezuela's Internet Crackdown Escalates into Regional Blackout • Hacker News Board

Re: Venezuela's Internet Crackdown Escalates into Regional Blackout

#21

Post by davidw » Thu, Feb 20, 2014, 1:51 PM UTC

skrebbel wrote: post #20

pessimizer wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maduro isn't a dictator, he's the democratically elected head of a weak government. The government had been run as a cult of personality, that personality died, and the professional class smelled blood. These protesters are ultimately demanding that the police shoot more people, not fewer. They feel their country is spinning out of control, and needs a strongman to save it. Paging Dr. Pinochet?

I know nothing of the issue, so please educate me, but isn't Maduro the one who currently controls all media and just shut down his people's acces to the internet? Sounds pretty dictator-y to me.

As far as I understand it, he is democratically elected, but the government doesn't have much in the way of checks and balances. The stuff about the protesters wanting a military strongman sounds like biased propaganda.

Re: Venezuela's Internet Crackdown Escalates into Regional Blackout

#22

Post by unhe » Thu, Feb 20, 2014, 2:04 PM UTC

Sadly, this is just the beginning for the rest of us LATAM countries. Mexico just sealed a deal this year to sell all of its oil to Canada and U.S. Venezuela is an oil country, and unlike mexico, Venezuela has more ethics in preserving all natural resources to itself instead of selling them. Another thing you should consider... who else has the power to shut down the internet in an entire nation? Lets assume, when U.S invaded Irak, the internet was also shut down and magically the U.S had won. Egypt,Venezuela and the U.K are following coincidentally the same protocol

Re: Venezuela's Internet Crackdown Escalates into Regional Blackout

#23

Post by kaonashi » Thu, Feb 20, 2014, 2:05 PM UTC

gmjosack wrote: post #2

Interestingly my girlfriend has been using What's App to communicate with her family in Venezuela cheaply throughout the last week since they've been unable to get any news. It's really sad to see the government act this way and hopefully the realize that they're causing a lot of unrest in their citizens. It's always inspiring to see citizens standing up to the government in all these other countries. you see some pr…

When you're under full assault from the US intelligence agencies, sometimes you overreact.

Re: Venezuela's Internet Crackdown Escalates into Regional Blackout

#24

Post by tremols » Thu, Feb 20, 2014, 2:10 PM UTC

yread wrote: post #5

I saw this post yesterday http://www.rebelion.org/noticia.php?id=180977 It shows how leaders of opposition are using images from protests from Egypt, Bulgaria and other places as if they were from Venezuela

There is no such thing as "leaders of opposition" right now (oppositors turned their back on formed leader capriles for being too mild and indulgent); just people that posts images and videos on twitter. I haven't seen those egypt and bulgaria pics and I have seen the events with my own eyes.

So.. at international leftist propaganda.

Re: Venezuela's Internet Crackdown Escalates into Regional Blackout

#25

Post by gadders » Thu, Feb 20, 2014, 2:12 PM UTC

But Venezuela is a democracy and Hugo Chavez was a democrat and man of peace!

Re: Venezuela's Internet Crackdown Escalates into Regional Blackout

#26

Post by pmelendez » Thu, Feb 20, 2014, 2:12 PM UTC

pessimizer wrote: post #16

higherpurpose wrote: post #3

You'd think that after 10 or so such major protests in the past few years, the dictators would learn not to repeat the same mistakes everyone else did before them. Someone should write a "10 commandments" of sort for how dictators should react in case of major protest. Maybe do what American presidents do: promise major changes and tell them everything they want to hear , and then do cosmetic changes at best over a l…

Maduro isn't a dictator, he's the democratically elected head of a weak government. The government had been run as a cult of personality, that personality died, and the professional class smelled blood. These protesters are ultimately demanding that the police shoot more people, not fewer. They feel their country is spinning out of control, and needs a strongman to save it. Paging Dr. Pinochet?

Well under that definition Castro was "elected" democratically... As far as I can tell, after you control all the powers in a country, elections don't say too much.

Re: Venezuela's Internet Crackdown Escalates into Regional Blackout

#27

Post by pmelendez » Thu, Feb 20, 2014, 2:16 PM UTC

gadders wrote: post #25

But Venezuela is a democracy and Hugo Chavez was a democrat and man of peace!

I can't tell if you are being ironic or not, but just to remind the people who can take your post seriously, that Chavez and his group commanded two unsuccessful coup d'etat attempts, that is hardly something that a "man of peace" would do.

Re: Venezuela's Internet Crackdown Escalates into Regional Blackout

#28

Post by mzs » Thu, Feb 20, 2014, 2:24 PM UTC

skrebbel wrote: post #20

pessimizer wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maduro isn't a dictator, he's the democratically elected head of a weak government. The government had been run as a cult of personality, that personality died, and the professional class smelled blood. These protesters are ultimately demanding that the police shoot more people, not fewer. They feel their country is spinning out of control, and needs a strongman to save it. Paging Dr. Pinochet?

I know nothing of the issue, so please educate me, but isn't Maduro the one who currently controls all media and just shut down his people's acces to the internet? Sounds pretty dictator-y to me.

Controlling much of the media was already the case before Maduro. The ruling party does not nor did it control all of it though. And it's not Maduro directly deciding everything. Maybe those were not ideas you had, but they are common misconceptions to many, just wanted to clear those up first.

So the things that have happened for many years now in broad strokes are that the state sponsored media was political. Besides what you expect it wanted the mind share of the older more conservative folks and would promote ideas like there was too much obscenity etc. Another thing was that independent media was also political and so attacked by the state directly and by harassing employees and owners.

Re: Venezuela's Internet Crackdown Escalates into Regional Blackout

#29

Post by gadders » Thu, Feb 20, 2014, 2:25 PM UTC

pmelendez wrote: post #27

gadders wrote: post #25

But Venezuela is a democracy and Hugo Chavez was a democrat and man of peace!

I can't tell if you are being ironic or not, but just to remind the people who can take your post seriously, that Chavez and his group commanded two unsuccessful coup d'etat attempts, that is hardly something that a "man of peace" would do.

I am being ironic. He was lionised in the left-wing press in the UK when he died, and was a friend of our ex-London Mayor Ken Livingstone. In reality, he is no better than Castro.

Re: Venezuela's Internet Crackdown Escalates into Regional Blackout

#30

Post by huherto » Thu, Feb 20, 2014, 2:27 PM UTC

pmelendez wrote: post #27

gadders wrote: post #25

But Venezuela is a democracy and Hugo Chavez was a democrat and man of peace!

I can't tell if you are being ironic or not, but just to remind the people who can take your post seriously, that Chavez and his group commanded two unsuccessful coup d'etat attempts, that is hardly something that a "man of peace" would do.

It is definitely sarcasm. (Or irony, probably I don't even know the difference)