Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro has issued a decree banning Elon Musk’s X platform from his country for 10 days.
The move follows a bitter war of words with the tech billionaire in the aftermath of Venezuela’s disputed election last month.
Mr Musk, 53, who bought the social media company formerly known as Twitter in 2022, branded Mr Maduro’s re-election a sham.
The president, 61, responded by accusing Mr Musk of inciting “hatred, fascism and civil war”.
“Elon Musk is the owner of X and has violated all the rules of the social network itself,” said Mr Maduro in a speech broadcast on state television on Thursday night.
“X get out of Venezuela for 10 days!” he shouted.
The row began when Mr Maduro declared himself the winner of the July 28 presidential election with some 51 per cent of the vote despite opposition claims he lost the vote by a more than 2-to-1 margin.
Mr Musk immediately posted on X that there had been “major election fraud by Maduro”, adding: “Shame on Dictator Maduro.”
He also compared Mr Maduro’s intelligence to that of a donkey.
The president claimed Mr Musk was using his influence to become a driving force behind protests and dissent following the election.
Last week, Mr Maduro challenged the owner of SpaceX and Tesla on national television to a fight. “Do you want to fight? Let’s do it. Elon Musk, I’m ready. I’m not afraid of you,” he said.
Mr Musk accepted, saying: “If I win, he resigns as dictator of Venezuela. If he wins, I give him a free ride to Mars.”
The temporary ban on X represents another swipe at social media companies after Mr Maduro urged his supporters this week to abandon the Meta-owned WhatsApp messaging app – in favour of Telegram or WeChat – accusing it of being used to threaten the families of soldiers and police officers.
In the wake of the election results, anti-government protests broke out in Venezuela and abroad, demanding Mr Maduro step down and respect the victory of opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez.
But Mr Maduro has stayed in office and Venezuela’s electoral authority has yet to publish the vote tallies.
Security forces have launched a swift crackdown on protesters leading to more than 2,000 arrests.
The foreign ministers of Mexico, Colombia and Brazil reiterated calls this week for the vote totals to be published.
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