Throughout the competition of Tihar, Kathmandu, the nationwide capital of Nepal, often stays quiet. Workplaces, courts, colleges and establishments stay closed. Within the evenings and nights, the quietness will get punctuated by sounds of firecrackers, that are formally banned in Nepal. This 12 months too, on November 13, there was a normal quietness on account of Tihar. After which the federal government led by Maoist chief Pushpa Kamal Dahal “Prachanda” burst the loudest firecracker — it introduced a ban on the favored social media app TikTok.
Motive: “TikTok is disrupting social harmony.”
The transfer instantly drew sharp reactions, with many taking to social media platforms like X, previously Twitter, in addition to TikTok itself, till the ban got here into impact, to name the choice an try to stifle freedom of speech.
The federal government has maintained that it determined to ban the social media app within the face of pervasiveness of content material that it believed was threatening social concord, stoking non secular hate and violence, inflicting household disintegration and fuelling sexism and casteism.
Minister for Communications and Data Expertise Rekha Sharma stated after the Cupboard choice on November 13 that TikTok needed to be banned as a result of it was disturbing social concord, household construction and household relations.
The ban is now in impact, whilst some customers have resorted to VPN (digital personal networks) to function the app.
The transfer in query
Whereas asserting its choice to ban TikTok, the federal government stopped in need of citing any authorized provision.
The ban was introduced days after the federal government handed “Directive on the Operation of Social Networking 2023”, which meant social media platforms working in Nepal now onwards have to determine their workplaces within the nation.
In latest occasions, some digital assaults have been noticed on TikTok between Hindus, Muslims and a few indigenous communities, resulting in enforcement of curfews. As noticed internationally, the platform has been even used to unfold hate speech and misinformation and disinformation. Many nations have utterly restricted or restricted using TikTok, with India imposing an entire ban together with numerous different Chinese language apps.
Questions, nevertheless, have been requested why the Prachanda authorities took a choice in haste to impose a blanket ban simply when it was working to “regulate” social media platforms. Consultants say if the federal government believed the social media app was posing such an enormous risk to society, then it might have adopted the due course of constructing laws accordingly, as a substitute of asserting the sudden ban.
Baburam Aryal, an professional on cyber legislation, says the federal government’s choice to ban TikTok lacks the authorized standpoint and that it additionally violates the constitutional provisions. “We don’t know yet on which legal basis the government decided to ban TikTok,” Mr. Aryal stated. “On top of that, constitutionally guaranteed rights of freedom of speech and freedom of publication and broadcasting, including through electronic mediums, have been brazenly violated by this decision.”
What does TikTok must say?
In a rustic of inhabitants round 30 million, till the ban there have been over 2.2 million TikTok customers in Nepal. The ban could not have a major influence on the app, however Nepal becoming a member of a listing of nations to restrict its use may very well be a trigger for concern for the Chinese language-owned firm.
Requests to TikTok representatives for feedback went unanswered.
Nevertheless, its issues over the ban have been obvious from a letter it despatched on November 13 to the Nepal Telecom Authority (NTA), Nepal’s telecoms regulator.
The social media app in its letters,, has expressed its dismay on the choice to ban the app. “We were as surprised as we’re sure the millions of Nepali citizens were, who have been a part of our community expressing their creativity and joy through the platform,” stated Ferdous Mottakin, Head of Public Coverage & Governance Relations-South Asia for ByteDance, the mother or father firm of TikTok, within the letter addressed to NTA.
TikTok has claimed that it registered as a digital service tax payer in Nepal on August 29 this 12 months and that it proactively eliminated 2.98 million movies from Nepal between October 2022 and June 2023.
“The decision to block TikTok contradicts the Government of Nepal’s current engagement with us,” the letter says, acknowledging the letter it obtained from NTA relating to the ban.
Aversion to criticism
Critics say the problem right here will not be that the federal government banned TikTok, the problem is the mala fide intention behind the transfer.
“The government seems to be testing the waters, starting with TikTok. If it is not restrained, you never know what all it will ban —Facebook and other apps,” stated Dambar Khatiwada, a author and commentator. “Imposing a ban on a social media app like this shows the intent of the government to rule in an authoritative style.”
In keeping with Mr. Khatiwada, the Prachanda authorities banned the app not often because it certainly was disrupting social concord however as a result of it had change into a simple instrument for the general public to vent their angst at politicians.
“And they were rattled by criticism,” he stated.
By Mr. Prachanda’s personal admission, the federal government determined to ban TikTok as per an understanding amongst political events from throughout the spectrum.
“The decision was taken after extended discussions among parties in the government as well as the Opposition,” Mr. Prachanda stated at a public operate a day after the federal government introduced the ban.
Mr. Khatiwada says what the Prime Minister stated makes issues much more problematic. “Mr. Prachanda’s statement is a clear indication that Nepal’s traditional parties have the realisation that they have failed but they do not want to muzzle the dissenting voices,” he stated. “And the silence of other parties over the ban of the social media ban is deafening.”
Mr. Prachanda has these days been constantly expressing his dissatisfaction at criticism of his authorities.
His Maoist social gathering performed an important function in Nepal’s transition from the monarchy to a secular federal republic. The nation, nevertheless, has been mired by musical chair politics that has given rise to frustration among the many basic public. Recently, Mr. Prachanda has been always saying that republicanism is beneath risk, which many say is his try to gloss over his authorities’s failure.
Mr. Aryal says the way in which the federal government abruptly determined to ban TikTok amid the competition holidays itself is a sign that it’s so weak on its authority. “It may have thought the decision during the festival lull could pass without eliciting much criticism, but that was not to be,” he stated. “It was clear from the day the ban was announced that it would be challenged in court.”
On Friday, when courts opened, a minimum of 10 petitions have been filed at Nepal’s Supreme Courtroom difficult the ban of the social media app.
Mr. Khatiwada says the TikTok ban subject by the federal government shouldn’t be seen in isolation. “This is part of a bigger exercise to silence free speech and it will boomerang on the government,” he stated. “The firecracker the government has burst by banning the social media app is going to leave it with its fingers scorched.”
(Sanjeev Satgainya is an unbiased journalist primarily based in Kathmandu)