Nepal outlaws TikTok over security concerns

The Nepal government banned the China-owned video-sharing software ‘TikTok’ on Monday.

Rekha Sharma, the country’s Minister of Communications and Information Technology, stated that the decision to prohibit TikTok was made at00 a recent cabinet meeting.

However, Rekha Sharma, the government spokesperson, stated that the decision’s implementation date has yet to be determined.

Although the government stated that freedom of expression is a fundamental right, a huge segment of society has attacked TikTok for fostering hate speech.

There have been 1,647 reports of cybercrime on the video-sharing app in the last four years.

The Nepal Police Cyber Bureau, the Ministry of Home Affairs, and TikTok representatives met earlier last week to address the problem, and the ban imposition decision is scheduled to be implemented after technical preparations are completed.

The new judgment comes only days after the government issued the ‘Directives for the Operation of Social Networking 2023’.

According to the new legislation, social media platforms operating in Nepal must establish offices in the nation.

On Thursday, the country made it mandatory for social media platforms such as Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), TikTok, and YouTube, among others, to build liaison offices in Nepal.

Within three months of the implementation of the instructions, the corporations must either open an office or appoint a focal person in Nepal. They have also been told to register their social media sites with the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology or face a shutdown.

The guidelines include a 19-point not-to-do list for users of platforms such as Facebook, X, TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram.

Meanwhile, the Indian government banned TikTok, and several other Chinese applications in June 2020 due to national security concerns. The app had around 150 million active users in India prior to the shutdown.

Furthermore, due to security concerns about the TikTok app, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Afghanistan, Denmark, Netherlands, New Zealand, and Norway have put partial or whole restrictions on the video-sharing app.

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