Nepal has become the latest country to ban the Chinese social media app TikTok, claiming it was “detrimental to social harmony.” The social media giant, which has around a billion monthly users, has already been banned in several other areas, including India and the US state of Montana. The app was banned four times temporarily in October 2020 in Pakistan, and its online shopping service was shut in Indonesia last month.
Nepal’s minister for communications and technology, Rekha Sharma, stated that the platform spreads malicious content. She added that “the ban would come into effect immediately and telecom authorities have been directed to implement the decision".
This comes just days after the country introduced a new 15-point directive on the operation of social networking. This directive includes rules which mandate international social media platforms to establish a liaison office or an appointment of focal person within three months. On top of this, these platforms are required to register with the ministry of information and communication technology - rejecting these mandates risks a ban in the country.
The ban has ignited widespread criticism in the country. Gugan Thapa, a senior leader of Nepali congress, has questioned the government's decision to impose a ban on TikTok. He expressed concerns with the ban, saying it was an attempt to curb freedom of expression and that officials should instead focus on regulating the platform.
As TikTok’s global reach has grown, so have the levels of hate, harassment and criticism of people’s online behaviour. The rise in online volatility has not been absent in Nepal either. In July of this year, one Nepali was arrested for creating and publishing indecent TIkTok videos featuring the president and prime minister.
Ever since TikTok’s online presence and impact has grown, China's ByteDance (the platform’s owner) has faced scrutiny across the world over concerns that Beijing could use the app to harvest user data or advance its interests. As a safety precaution, the United States, Britain and New Zealand have banned the app on government phones, despite TikTok’s consistent denial that it has ever shared data with the Chinese government. However, Nepal has taken matters a step further with its introduction of the widespread ban. Their neighbouring country India has seen a ban on TikTok along with dozens of other Chinese owned apps since June 2020, over concerns that they compromise national security and integrity.
India and Nepal’s bans of these applications make us ask a vital question; are we seeing a new age in which the world's governments attempt to regain control from big tech companies? Some speculate that it appears this way, as the number of regions banning TikTok and similar applications only seem to increase. The rise of social media has created a kind of power shift as it is not only the government who now determines what we see, what we want, and what we think. With this knowledge, it appears Nepal certainly won't be the last country to ban TikTok, as the war for information control between government and big tech corporations rages on.