President Nicolás Maduro has urged his supporters to delete WhatsApp, the messaging app owned by Meta, claiming it is being used by “fascists” to incite violence.
Addressing a rally organized by the ruling party’s youth wing, Maduro called for a “voluntary, progressive, and radical withdrawal” from WhatsApp. He announced his own switch to Telegram and the Chinese messaging app WeChat.
“I am going to break ties with WhatsApp, because they are using it to threaten Venezuela. And so I am going to delete my WhatsApp from my phone forever. Little by little I will move my contacts to Telegram,” he said.
“Say no to WhatsApp. WhatsApp out of Venezuela, because there the criminals threaten the youth, the popular leaders .” Maduro added.
He added that “this is how people govern from their phones in Colombia, Miami, Peru, and Chile. Cowards hide behind anonymity.”
