Spanish transnational Telefónica announced demands for “cutting” more than 1.5 million phone lines and Internet access in Venezuela in 2021, and human rights defenders see this as a sign of the progress of a “mass surveillance” program. .
According to a report available in the country by the company, “legal tampering” of Telefónica’s phone lines and Internet access jumped from 380,250 in 2016 to 861,004 in 2021, with more than 1.5 million “affected access” last year. since 2005.
The company has released data on requests to block and block websites from authorities in Germany, the United Kingdom, Spain, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela, where it operates.
“This is a systematic abuse of blocking of communication,” Andrés Azpúrua, director of “VE Sin Filter”, a Venezuelan NGO that fights against blocking and restrictions on the Internet, told AFP.
Condemning this situation, Azpurua warned that the interventions of agents of the government of President Nicolás Maduro and other officials, whose numbers have quadrupled in six years, are evidence of “a program of mass surveillance through the hijacking of communications and the seizing of metadata”. It describes it as a “large-scale violation of human rights” that “reflects an authoritarian scenario”.
Carlos Correa, director of the NGO Espaço Público, which monitors attacks on freedom of expression, lamented the “increase in wiretapping”.
These “tapings” reached 20% of Telefónica’s customers in Venezuela and only 0.28% in Brazil, 0.05% in Argentina and 0.00% in Mexico, Colombia and Ecuador.
Also, between 2016 and 2021, there were more than 3.5 million requests for “traps” aimed at accessing subscriber data and “real-time” locations.
Nearly one million lines (997,679) were affected by requests for “metadata”: personal information, location, IP addresses, number of incoming and outgoing text messages, and incoming and outgoing calls.
In the report, the “competent authorities” making the request include the Intelligence Service (Şebin), the science police and the Armed Forces, and “other bodies and organizations special to criminal investigation” “at the request of the Public Ministry and at the authorization of the relevant judge”.
Şebin is the target of numerous allegations of human rights violations and persecution of dissidents.
The National University of Experimental Security (UNES) also has the authority to request wiretaps. Espaço Público members ask, “What need, practically, for a university to have the power to interfere with private communications?” he asks.
“This speaks to a very high level of oversight on the part of the state,” Correa told AFP.
Telefónica is Venezuela’s main mobile operator. State-owned CANTV, on the other hand, dominates the telephone and fixed internet market.
Blocks on the Internet
As for internet access, more than 1,300 websites were blocked or content restricted in Venezuela between 2016 and 2021 at the request of the National Telecommunications Commission (Conatel), according to Telefónica.
Journalists and human rights organizations have already condemned the mass blocking of internet portals by media outlets critical of Maduro.
According to the report, the year with the highest number of blocks was 2016 with 1,050, followed by 2018 with 106, with 30 requests in 2021.
The document does not detail the features or structure of 98% of all restricted sites, but points out that 27 “gambling and betting site” URLs were targeted in 2019.
According to Espaço Público, 45 out of 100 news portals in Venezuela have been blocked.
By international standards, blocking should be done after judges’ orders or court sentences, but in most cases registered in this country there is no information about the reason for the restrictions on URLs, Correa criticized.
“Although the data corresponds to only one of the telecommunications companies operating in Venezuela, we think the situation is similar for others.”
While there is no public data from other companies, Correa estimates that “the number of interventions requested must also be very high.”
AFP has attempted to contact Conatel, but spokespersons for the agency have declined to comment at this time. He also tried to contact representatives of other operators without responding.
source: Noticias
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