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Nepal to ban TikTok as it \u2018disturbs social harmony\u2019 | Social Media News<\/p>\n
Authorities cite the popular Chinese video-sharing platform\u2019s negative effects and ask internet service providers to close the app.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Nepal says it will ban TikTok, adding that social harmony and goodwill are being disturbed by \u201cmisuse\u201d of the popular video-sharing app and that there is rising demand to control it.<\/p>\n Nepal\u2019s Minister for Communications and Information Technology Rekha Sharma said the decision to ban TikTok was taken at a cabinet meeting on Monday.<\/p>\n Sharma said the decision was made because TikTok was consistently used to share content that \u201cdisturbs social harmony and disrupts family structures and social relations\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cColleagues are working on closing it technically,\u201d she said, without specifying what triggered the ban.<\/p>\n TikTok has already been either partially or completely banned by other countries, with many citing security concerns.<\/p>\n More than 1,600 TikTok-related cybercrime cases have been registered over the last four years in Nepal, according to local media reports.<\/p>\n Nepal Telecom Authority chief Purushottam Khanal said that internet service providers have been asked to close the app. \u201cSome have already closed while others are doing it later today [Monday],\u201d Khanal told Reuters news agency.<\/p>\n TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the matter. It has previously said such bans are \u201cmisguided\u201d and that they are based on \u201cmisconceptions\u201d.<\/p>\n Hours after the decision was made public, videos on the ban had thousands of views on TikTok.<\/p>\n Opposition leaders in Nepal criticised the move, saying that it lacked \u201ceffectiveness, maturity and responsibility\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are many unwanted materials in other social media also. What must be done is to regulate and not restrict them,\u201d said Pradeep Gyawali, former foreign minister and a senior leader of the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist).<\/p>\n Gagan Thapa, leader of the Nepali Congress party that is part of the ruling coalition, said the government\u2019s intention seems to be to \u201cstifle freedom of expression\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cRegulation is necessary to discourage those who abuse social media, but shutting down social media in the name of regulation is completely wrong,\u201d he said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.<\/p>\n The decision comes days after Nepal introduced a directive requiring social media platforms operating in the country to set up offices.<\/p>\n TikTok, with around a billion monthly users, is run by the Beijing-based parent company ByteDance and is the sixth most used social platform in the world, according to the We Are Social marketing agency.<\/p>\n Multiple countries have sought to tighten controls on the app for allegedly breaking data rules and for its potentially harmful impact on youth.<\/p>\n Nepal\u2019s neighbour India banned TikTok along with dozens of other apps by Chinese developers in June 2020, saying that they could compromise national security and integrity.<\/p>\n Another South Asian country, Pakistan, banned the app at least four times over what the country\u2019s government terms its \u201cimmoral and indecent\u201d content.<\/p>\n Parent company ByteDance rejects critics who accuse it of being under Beijing\u2019s direct control.<\/p>\n Although it lags behind the likes of Meta\u2019s long-dominant trio of Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram, its growth among young people far outstrips its competitors.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u0627\u0644\u0645\u0635\u062f\u0631<\/a>
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