At least 19 individuals have died with several more injured following protests held on Nepal streets by dissatisfied youth regarding government’s ban of social media use.
The social media ban comes as a result of the companies’ inability to reach a compliance deal with the Nepalese government on the regulation of these platforms to avoid misuse.
The young protestors fled classrooms and places of study and filled the streets to protest in the capital Kathmandu and other cities in the Himalayan country. Many of the protesters were students and joined the demonstrations in their school or college uniforms. The organisers called the protests “demonstrations by Gen Z”.
Nepal’s government has said social media users create fake IDs and use them to spread hate speech and fake news, commit fraud and other crimes on these platforms.
A government notice directed the regulator, Nepal Telecommunications Authority, to deactivate unregistered social media but gave no details of which platforms faced action. The services will be restored once the platforms comply with its order, the government said.
