Network data shows that Venezuela’s state-run internet provider ABA CANTV (AS8048) has restricted access to YouTube, Twitter’s video streaming service Periscope, several Google services and Microsoft Bing as of 11:10 PM UTC (7:10 PM VET), for a duration of 55 minutes.

The nationwide block coincides with a live-streamed press conference held in Cúcuta, Colombia with US Secretary of State Pompeo and Colombian President Duque on the matter of Venezuela.

Update: Access to YouTube, Periscope, Bing and Google services restored in #Venezuela following nationwide censorship of US Secretary of State Pompeo press conference in #Cúcuta; incident duration 55 minutes #KeepItOn #14Abr ⬇️https://t.co/EZSZFEQLrj pic.twitter.com/K1WgIjS9TP — NetBlocks.org (@netblocks) April 15, 2019

The new outages mark the continuation of ephemeral, or intermittent internet censorship imposed by the state appearing to target critical speech. Data are consistent with previous targeted disruptions during public appearances by Juan Guaidó, and during sessions of Venezuela’s National Assembly.

Venezuela saw a remission in ephemeral network filtering during the nationwide power outages through March. News media and campaign website filters nevertheless remained in place throughout that period and intermittent censorship targeting Guaidó resumed when much of the country remained offline due to chronic power grid failures.

The finding is based on a set of 2000 network measurements from 30 vantage points across Venezuela collected by the NetBlocks internet observatory and validated against a larger control set. At each point in time and at each location, the round-trip time or latency, along with network failure information is relayed and aggregated to get a picture of internet access quality in the world in real-time.

Past incidents of network filtering in Venezuela have lasted from twelve minutes to over twenty hours, when YouTube was restricted hours before the country’s first nationwide power outage. Network data indicates that each platform disruption is consistent with methods used to block online content in Venezuela.

Confirmed: YouTube, Periscope, Bing and Google services restricted in #Venezuela from 11:10PM UTC (7:10PM VET) coinciding with US Secretary of State Pompeo press conference with Colombia President Duque streamed from #Cúcuta; incident ongoing #KeepItOn ⬇️https://t.co/EZSZFEQLrj pic.twitter.com/xqdYoap7nR — NetBlocks.org (@netblocks) April 15, 2019

Methodology

Internet performance and service reachability are determined via NetBlocks web probe privacy-preserving analytics. Each measurement consists of latency round trip time, outage type and autonomous system number aggregated in real-time to assess service availability and latency in a given country. Network providers and locations enumerated as vantage point pairs. The root cause of a service outage may be additionally corroborated by means of traffic analysis and manual testing as detailed in the report.

NetBlocks is a civil society group working at the intersection of digital rights, cyber-security and internet governance. Independent and non-partisan, NetBlocks strives for an open and inclusive digital future for all.