Noticia y Punto

Hack of the Palpitar Trujillano Instagram account and blocking of the Noticia y Punto website (December 2022)

In December 2022, the Instagram account of the Venezuelan media outlet Palpitar Trujillano (with more than 100,000 followers), which covers Trujillo, Mérida, and Zulia, suffered four cyberattacks and suspensions: Meta suspended the original account on December 10 following reports from third parties, and the alternate accounts created afterward were hacked or deleted on December 15, 20, and 25, as documented by IPYS Venezuela and Espacio Público. The outlet’s director, Andrés Briceño Sulbarán, described the incidents as sabotage against freedom of expression and filed a complaint with the CICPC in Valera; those responsible remain unidentified. Meanwhile, the website of the Zulia-based media outlet Noticia y Punto (noticiaypunto.com) has been blocked since December 22 by the providers Cantv, Digitel, and Movistar—a block verified by IPYS using OONI’s DNS methodology. The type of verifiable incident in the case of Palpitar Trujillano corresponds to an “account takeover.”