Nepal rolls back social media ban after deadly protests rock capital | Nepal
The Nepal government removed the ban on 26 leading social media application and messaging service after at least 19 people died and more than 100 injured in conflicts on Monday.
The country’s Minister of Communication and Information announced that the prohibition will be taken back for hours, protesting against blocks against the parliamentary complex in the capital Kathmandu.
“We withdrew the closure of social media. Now they are working,” he said.
Thousands of young Nepal recently participated in the “Gen Z” protests, which the law and the government said that it reflects the disappointment with the lack of perceived action to cope with corruption and increase economic opportunities.
24 -year -old student Yujan Rajbhandari said, “We are protesting against institutionalized corruption in Nepal,” he said.
In Kathmandu, protesters entered the parliamentary complex on Monday, passed through a barricade and opened fire on the ambulance. While the police used water balls, batons and rubber bullets to control the crowd, the army was deployed and a curfew was applied in the capital.
Amnesty International said that live ammunition was used and a few protesters resulted in death and serious injuries. “The law enforcement officers should only use force in places that are absolutely necessary and should definitely be proportional to the legitimate target to be realized,” he said.
Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli said that he was upset about violence because of olma infiltration from different selfish centers ”.
The government added that it has created a committee to investigate violence, and that the dead would pay relief for their families and provide free treatment for wounded people.
Protesters carried banners with slogans such as kurma closure of social media, not social media ”,“ social media ”and“ young people against corruption ”.
20 -year -old Ikshama Tumrok said that the government protested the “authoritarian attitude”.
Many of them showed a flag from the Japanese Manga series One Piece, a symbol of criticism against the reduction of democratic freedoms in Indonesia.
The Nepal government said that last month will be given seven days to establish a contact point for social media firms and to register for new arrangements, including identifying resident complaints and adaptation officers.
Meta’s Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, Alphabet’s Youtube, China’s Tencent and Snapchat, Pinterest and X missed the last date and then blocked.
The government said that social media users used false identities and use them to spread hate speech and false news, fraud and other crimes on these platforms.
Previously popular online platforms, including the Telegram messaging application in July, were prevented. Last year, the government raised a nine -month ban on Tiktok in August after the platform agreed to comply with Nepal regulations.
With Reuters and Agency France-Presse
