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Nepal has said it will ban TikTok, citing negative effects on the
country’s “social harmony”.

The popular video-sharing platform, which has around a billion monthly
users, has faced restrictions in many countries for alleged breaches of
data rules and for the potentially harmful impact on youth of some
content.

“The decision to ban was made today, and relevant authorities are
currently addressing the technical issues,” the minister for
communications and information technology, Rekha Sharma, said on Monday.

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Sharma said the decision was made because TikTok was consistently used to
share content that “disturbs social harmony and disrupts family structures
and social relations”. She did not specify what had triggered the ban.

Hours after the decision was made public, videos on the ban had thousands
on views on TikTok.

Gagan Thapa, leader of the Nepali Congress party which is part of the
ruling coalition, said the government’s intention seems to be to “stifle freedom of expression”.

“Regulation is necessary to discourage those who abuse social media, but shutting down social media in the name of regulation is completely wrong,”
he said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.

The decision comes days after Nepal introduced a directive requiring
social media platforms operating in the country to set up offices.

TikTok is the sixth-most used social platform in the world, according to
the We Are Social marketing agency. Multiple countries have sought to
tighten controls on social media due to their potential impact on
children.

TikTok’s owner, ByteDance, is Chinese, but the company rejects criticism
that it is under Beijing’s direct control. Although it lags behind the
likes of Meta’s long-dominant trio of Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram,
its growth among young people far outstrips its competitors.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/nov/14/nepal-tiktok-ban-social- harmony-why

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