Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Monday gave TikTok 72 hours to remove content promoting dangerous challenges after the deaths of two children in the country, or face “severe measures.”
“Challenge” videos are very common on social media and sometimes call for potentially fatal acts, such as exposing oneself to toxic products. The challenges criticized by Nicolas Maduro here consist of the ingestion of drugs.
“A 12-year-old girl from a public high school died today (Monday) in Petare (north) for swallowing (medication) and following these so-called challenges (…), the girl managed to speak while she was convulsing and to say that she had seen them on TikTok,” the president said on his show “Con Maduro.” A 14-year-old boy also died after trying to complete one of these challenges “that are circulating on TikTok,” he added.
Nicolas Maduro thus asked the president of the Venezuelan telecoms regulator to contact TikTok’s regional managers, giving the platform 72 hours to remove these “abusive, criminal challenges”.
“To the head of (the region) Latin America who lives in Mexico, I say: the death of these children is your responsibility, because it is you, TikTok, who is spreading this,” castigated Nicolas Maduro.
“Severe measures” against the social network will be taken to “defend” the integrity of children in the event of non-compliance with this injunction, continued the leader, targeting “these TikTok criminals”. He also urged parents of young users to monitor their online activity.
An investigation is opened in Venezuela. Nicolas Maduro has already taken measures against social networks: on August 8, he ordered the suspension of
X became available again for private Internet users a few weeks later but access to it remains restricted for employees of the national telecoms company Cantv.
Nicolas Maduro also called for a boycott of WhatsApp messaging, uninstalling the application from his cell phone on August 6, according to television images. Measures to regulate these platforms, accused of promoting values contrary to state Chavism, are under discussion in Parliament, which is in power.
