Nepal on Monday announced it will ban Chinese social media platform TikTok citing its ‘negative effects’ on social harmony. Nepal’s communication and information technology minister Rekha Sharma told news agency PTI that the decision to prohibit TikTok use was taken in a cabinet meeting.
A large section of the Nepalese society has slammed TikTok, accusing it of encouraging a tendency of hate speech. In the past four years, at least 1,647 cases of cyber crime have been reported on the app.
A discussion between Nepal Police’s Cyber Bureau, the home ministry and representatives of the Chinese app had taken place last week. The decision to ban the platform will be enforced after the completion of technical preparations.
The Nepal minister said that the decision to shut down TikTok will be executed after setting a specific deadline. Nepali Congress general secretary Gagan Thapa called the government’s decision to ban TikTok a wrong one and added that the government should instead regulate the platform.
“The government’s decision should be rectified as it violates freedom of expression and individual freedom,” Thapa posted on social media platform X.
Several countries including India, the United States, European Union and the United Kingdom have banned TikTok due to security concerns.
In 2020, India had banned 59 mobile applications, mostly of Chinese origin, in wake of the Galwan border clash between the Indian and Chinese forces. Among those banned applications was TikTok, that according to Bloomberg, had nearly 200 million users in India.
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