As of May 17th, Venezuelan netizens have reported through Twitter that the news website La Patilla might have been blocked by governmental ISP, Cantv.net.
La Patilla “Esta página web no está disponible” @la_patilla Que esta sucediendo?? Que Rumores son esos de Bloqueo??
— Angélica(@Angelical26) mayo 17, 2012
Cantv está bloqueando algunos sitios web como @la_patilla, pueden reportar este y otros bloqueos en este sitio ow.ly/aZbLo
— Carlos Correa (@ccorreab) mayo 17, 2012
“La Patilla” is a blog-style website dedicated to general news, show business and entertainment, and owned by Alberto Ravell, journalist and co-founder of opposition news channel, Globovisión.
Presumably, the blockage might be related to the fact that the website published a video [es] and a live streaming of the prison of La Planta, where the last days there have been clashes between inmates and police authorities, which have been scarcely covered by official media.
Blackout informativo total en La Planta. Tumban @la_patilla para que no se vea el Ustream y después cortan la luz para que no transmita
— Arnaldo Espinoza (@Naldoxx) mayo 17, 2012
Los gafos de Cantv creen que van a resolver la crisis de la Planta bloqueando el portal de La Patilla
— Alonso Moleiro (@amoleiro) mayo 17, 2012
According to users, the site can be accesed through other ISPs and also using proxies. The website itself published an article [es] where they stated that they had changed the website IP after the complaints, and that this second IP was also blocked fifteen minutes later. Allegedly, they have sent a communication to Cantv.net declaring that:
Como medio de comunicación procedemos de manera formal a notificarles la situación. De no recibir respuesta procederemos a hacer una denuncia formal de la situación.
This would not be the first time that Cantv.net is accused of blocking a website. In previous occasions, netizens have reported difficulties to access Blogger and WordPress, amongst other websites.
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