Nepal’s government has lifted a ban on social media platforms a day after violent street protests that left at least 19 people dead.
Platforms including Facebook, X and YouTube were blocked last week, followed by a massive protest rally in the capital Kathmandu on Monday.
The government has now rolled back the social media ban, cabinet spokesperson and Communications and Information Technology Minister Prithvi Subba Gurung said.
The decision came after 19 people were killed and more than 100 injured in the “Gen Z” protests as police in Kathmandu opened fire on demonstrators.
“We have withdrawn the shutdown of the social media. They are working now,” Gurung told Reuters.
All the apps were available in Nepal on Tuesday morning. Authorities have also imposed an indefinite curfew within the Kathmandu city area, Kathmandu district administrator Chhabilal Rijal said.
“No protests, mass gatherings, meetings, or assemblies of people will be allowed during the curfew,” he said in a notice.
Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli said he was saddened by the incidents of violence due to the “infiltration from different selfish centres”.
The government would pay relief for the families of the dead and provide free treatment for the injured persons, he added.
“An investigation panel will be set up to find out the causes, assess losses and suggest measures within 15 days to ensure that such incidents are not repeated in future,” Oli said in a late-night statement on Monday.
The Home Minister Ramesh Lekhak resigned late Monday at an emergency cabinet meeting called by the prime minister.
Rallies swept the streets around the parliament building, which was surrounded by tens of thousands of people angry at authorities who said the companies had failed to register and submit to government oversight.
The government is pursuing a broader attempt to regulate social media with a bill aimed at ensuring the platforms are “properly managed, responsible and accountable”.
The proposal has been widely criticised as a tool for censorship and for punishing government opponents who voice their protests online.
About two dozen social networks that are widely used in Nepal were repeatedly given notices to register their companies officially in the Himalayan nation, the government said. Those that failed to register have been blocked since last week.
Neither Google, which owns YouTube, nor Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, responded to requests for comment. Elon Musk’s X platform, formerly Twitter, did not respond either.
The video-sharing app TikTok, Viber and three other platforms have registered and operated without interruption.
Seven of those killed and scores of the wounded were taken to the National Trauma Centre, the country’s main hospital in the heart of Kathmandu.
“Many of them are in serious condition and appear to have been shot in the head and chest,” said Dr Badri Risa. Families waited anxiously outside for news of their relatives while people lined up to donate blood.
“Stop the ban on social media. Stop corruption, not social media,” crowds outside parliament chanted, waving the red and blue national flags.
The government’s proposed bill includes asking the tech companies to appoint a liaison office or a point of contact in the nation.
Rights groups have called it an attempt by the government to curb freedom of expression and fundamental rights.
Nepal in 2023 banned TikTok for disrupting “social harmony, goodwill and diffusing indecent materials”.
The ban was lifted in 2024 after TikTok’s executives pledged to comply with local laws, including a ban of pornographic sites that was passed in 2018.
With Reuters
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