Nepal has joined countries such as India and other territories such as the state of Montana (United States) in its fight against TikTok and has decided to ban the application arguing that “it was detrimental to social harmony”, which is why it has put it in the hands of the country's telecommunications authorities his immediate veto.
The Nepalese government had approved days ago a new rule that requires social media companies to establish liaison offices in the country, which would have led to distancing between the application owned by the Chinese company ByteDance.
In the last four years, more than 1,600 cases of cybercrime related to TikTok have been registered in Nepal, according to local media, being the third most used platform nationwide with a special impact on young audiences, as occurs in the rest of the world.
The decision to ban TikTok has raised great controversy against the Nepalese government, since the leader of the opposition party Gagan Thapa has denounced the forcefulness of the executive: “If you have a pimple on your neck, you don't cut it,” he lamented. , while other politicians consider it “undemocratic” to veto the app.
Several entities of journalists and defenders of freedom of expression in digital media have gone further, signing a very critical joint statement, since they consider that the closure of TikTok “seriously violates the basic principles of democracy and weakens civil liberties and The rule of law".
The history of bans against TikTok continues to grow, as Pakistan has also temporarily banned the app, Indonesia has shut down its shopping service, and India has shut it down entirely. In the West, some countries have threatened to do the same if ByteDance does not take measures to improve the privacy of minors and the distribution of hoaxes.
