Political Unrest in Nepal
In the heart of Nepal's capital, Kathmandu, tensions have been running high. The government, led by Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli from the Communist Party of Nepal – Unified Marxist-Leninists (CPN-UML), issued an ultimatum to foreign-owned social media platforms to comply with registration requirements within a week, or risk being banned.
Following the ultimatum, TikTok and Viber complied, but more than two dozen other sites, including Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, YouTube, Reddit, Discord, Pinterest, and LinkedIn, did not, and were subsequently blocked. This decision sparked outrage among social media users and media companies alike.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemned the social media ban as a dangerous precedent, raising concerns about assaults and arrests, including the detention of Kailash Sirohiya, the chair of the Kantipur Media Group. The online process that led to the installation of Sushila Karki as interim prime minister was chaotic and open to anyone, making it hard to place typical democratic boundaries on participation.
Karki was sworn in following the collapse of the government and a military curfew, and she was chosen by over a hundred thousand Nepalis in a Discord chat, one of the banned apps. The decommissioned palace of the deposed monarch was spared by protesters, and he put out a statement that broadly backed their cause.
The son of Nepal's richest businessman acknowledged that the protesters had a point regarding the ostentatious privilege of the ruling elite's children. However, the government spokesperson stated that they had requested the platforms to enlist with them five times.
The protests took a violent turn when demonstrators swarmed the area around Parliament, and police fired live ammunition, killing at least nineteen people and injuring many others, including at least five journalists. This tragic event was a harbinger for the recent unrest in Nepal, echoing an earlier wave of protest that claimed at least two lives, including Suresh Rajak, a TV camera operator.
The restoration of the pre-2008 monarchy was a demand during the earlier wave of protest. The Arab Spring is often cited as an example of social media's inability to create a stable political structure in the long term. The online world has become a battleground, with calls for violence and misinformation circulating during the online process that led to the installation of Karki as prime minister.
Amidst this turmoil, the vice president of the United States took two hours out of his day to host a podcast and threaten reprisals against some ill-defined constellation of left-wing groups. The restoration of press freedom in Nepal is a crucial step towards stabilising the country and ensuring democratic processes are upheld.
