Nepal Wakes Up To TikTok's Reality

KATHMANDU: Nepal government Minister of Information and Communications, Rekha Sharma, said on Monday that a cabinet meeting of the Nepal government has decided to ban the social media app TikTok and a complete technical ban will come into effect later. While confirming the development over the phone to ANI, the minister said, "Tik Tok has been banned in Nepal on a policy level from today. The technical aspect of banning would take some time. The Ministry of Information and Communications would facilitate bringing the ban into effect.

The decision of the government of Nepal comes after contents shared over Tik Tok allegedly caused disruption in social harmony and break-ups in societal relations. Within the past 4 years and 3 months, a total of 1648 cases of cybercrime were registered in the cyber bureau of the Nepal Police, out of which the majority were regarding the contents of Tik Tok.

Chinese social media Tik Tok does not have any provisions to remove offensive contents. With the latest move, Nepal becomes the most recent country to ban Tik Tok, which is already banned in over 50 countries. The latest decision has come within days after the government introduced the 'Directives on the Operation of Social Networking 2023'.