On Monday, Nepal’s Foreign Minister Narayan Prakash Saud stated that the country has banned the popular social media app TikTok due to concerns about social harmony. The announcement came immediately following a cabinet meeting. Saud mentioned: “The government has decided to ban TikTok as it was necessary to regulate the use of the social media platform that was disrupting social harmony, goodwill and flow of indecent materials.”
Rekha Sharma, Nepal’s Minister for Communications and Information Technology, followed up in her statement, stating: “People constantly used TikTok to share content that disturbs social harmony and disrupts family structures and social relations.”
While it is still unsure what triggered the ban, Sharma mentioned that relevant authorities are addressing the technical issues currently as TikTok had yet to respond to any email seeking comments.
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Nepal Joins India in Banning TikTok Due to Worries of National Security and Integrity
TikTok, owned by Chinese company ByteDance, has faced scrutiny in several countries in recent years over concerns that they could use the app to collect user data or advance its interests. Although the platform repeatedly denied ever sharing data with the Chinese government and would not do so without being requested, many countries, such as the United States, UK and New Zealand, have banned the app on government phones.
For instance, Nepal’s neighbour India disallowed TikTok and dozens of other Chinese apps in June 2020, saying they could harm national security and integrity. Pakistan, another South Asian country, has also banned the app at least four times over what the country’s government terms its immoral and indecent content.
While TikTok has said such bans are misguided and are all based on misconceptions, the underlying truth is that local reports state that the country has registered more than 1,600 TikTok-related cybercrime cases over the past four years.
Nepal’s Former Foreign Minister Criticises Move and Calls for Regulation Instead of Restrictions
After the news raked over thousands of views on TikTok just hours after the announcement, some insiders, including former and current governing parties, came forward and criticised the move.
For example, Pradeep Gyawali, former foreign minister and a senior leader of the opposition Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist), mentioned: “There are many unwanted materials in other social media also (WhatsApp, Meta, Instagram). What we must do is to regulate and not restrict them.”
Gagan Thapa, leader of the Nepali Congress party, which is part of the ruling coalition, made a more brutal statement, saying that his fellow lawmaker’s intentions are to stifle freedom of expression from the public. In his X post, he stated: “Regulation is necessary to discourage those who abuse social media, but shutting down social media in the name of regulation is completely wrong.”
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TikTok Ban: A Political Move From Nepal?
Even as several countries have fully or partially banned the video sharing network, does the move mean more than securing users’ data?
After India’s nationwide ban on the platform, they were the most significant contributor to TikTok instals, even eclipsing China and the United States. However, after a deadly border clash between Chinese and Indian troops,, the country banned the platform citing concern about data use. The move, however, was widely seen as a response to the border clash. Amid peak US-China economic war, former US President Donald Trump had said the government was considering a ban on the app.
A Privacy Nightmare?
Furthermore, a study last year by URLgenius highlighted that TikTok tracks users’ personal data more than any other social media apps, barring YouTube, with no idea of where the data goes. In their study, they pinpointed that TikTok allows the most third-party trackers to collect users’ data, and from there, it is hard to say what happens with it. For more Tech, Crypto, Gaming and AI news, follow our Facebook and Instagram pages for daily updates of the latest info.