TikTok Banned in Nepal Over Detrimental Effects on Social Harmony

Popular social media app TikTok has been banned in Nepal over its alleged negative impact on social harmony. The platform has been widely criticized in Nepalese society for its tendency to encourage hate speech.

The ban would come into effect immediately, and telecom authorities have been directed to implement the decision.Rekha Sharma, Minister for Communications and Information Technology

The ban comes just a day after the government announced a new rule according to which social media companies are required to set up liaison offices in the country.

Nepal's Concerns About TikTok

Nepal's decision to ban TikTok was taken at a cabinet meeting held earlier on Monday. The government cited the platform's detrimental effects on society as the main reason behind the ban. When talking to reporters about the decision, Rekha Sharma went on to accuse the Chinese video-sharing platform of spreading malicious content.

Any hate speech or other malicious content spreading on the platform can naturally have a strong impact on such a young audience.

Over the last four years, as many as 1,647 cases of cybercrime related to TikTok were registered in Nepal. The Cyber Bureau of Nepal Police and the Ministry of Home Affairs reportedly discussed the issue with TikTok representatives earlier this week.

TikTok has grown extremely popular among teens and young adults, with over 80% of the users lying in the age group between 16 and 24 years.

While competitors like Facebook and YouTube are far ahead of TikTok in terms of their overall number of users, the latter is growing much faster among young people.

Senior Nepali Congress leader Gagan Thapa has questioned the ban, calling it an attempt to curb freedom of expression and saying that officials should instead regulate the platform better.

However, the government claimed while the freedom of speech and expression is a fundamental right, TikTok has come under strong criticism from a large section of the country's society for the spread of hate speech on the platform.

On Thursday, the government introduced a new rule mandating social media firms such as Facebook, YouTube, X (formerly known as Twitter), and TikTok to set up liaison offices in Nepal. The companies could alternatively appoint a focal person in the country, with a three-month deadline for both options.

TikTok Bans Growing More Common

Despite its massive popularity, TikTok has been facing an increasing number of bans in recent years. This stems from concerns that its parent company, ByteDance, could be passing on user data to the Chinese government - an accusation that the company has strongly denied.

Canada had launched a probe into TikTok's data collection policies earlier this year. The app is also banned from US-House-issued mobile devices and government devices in South Dakota. Montana has gone a step ahead to ban the app altogether in the state.

India banned TikTok along with 58 other apps that were mostly of Chinese origin in 2020 following a border clash between Indian and Chinese forces. At the time, the platform had over 200 million users in India.

Indonesia shut down TikTok's online shopping service last month, while Pakistan has banned the platform at least four times since 2020. Additionally, the US, UK, and European Union have enforced TikTok bans too.

The post TikTok Banned in Nepal Over Detrimental Effects on Social Harmony appeared first on The Tech Report.