00:00 The Nepal government has announced a ban on the China-owned video-sharing application
00:07 TikTok, citing its negative effects on social harmony.
00:11 The country's Minister of Communications and Information Technology, Rekha Sharma,
00:15 said that the decision to ban TikTok was made during a recent cabinet meeting.
00:19 However, Sharma said that when the decision will be brought into force is yet to be ascertained.
00:25 According to reports, the government said that although freedom of expression is a basic
00:29 right, a large section of the society has criticized TikTok for encouraging a tendency
00:34 of hate speech.
00:36 The Daily reported that in the past four years, 1,647 cases of cybercrime have been reported
00:42 on the video-sharing application.
00:45 As per the Nepal Daily, the Cyber Bureau of the Nepal Police, the Ministry of Home Affairs
00:50 and representatives of TikTok discussed the issue earlier last week and the ban imposition
00:55 decision is expected to be enforced following the completion of technical preparations.
01:00 The latest decision has come within days after the government introduced the directives on
01:05 the operation of social networking 2023.
01:07 As per the new rule, social media platforms operating in Nepal are required to set up
01:13 their offices in the country.
01:14 On Thursday, the country made it mandatory for social media sites such as Facebook, X
01:20 which was formerly known as Twitter, TikTok and YouTube, among others, to open their liaison
01:25 offices in Nepal.
01:27 The companies will have to establish either an office or appoint a focal person in Nepal
01:31 within three months of the enforcement of the directives.
01:34 They also have been mandated to register their social media platforms with the Ministry of
01:38 Information and Communication Technology or face a shutdown.
01:42 Meanwhile, in India, the government had in June 2020 banned TikTok along with several
01:47 other Chinese applications over national security concerns.
01:51 Moreover, concerning the security issues with the TikTok app, Austria, Belgium, Canada,
01:57 Afghanistan, Denmark, Netherlands, New Zealand and Norway have imposed partial or complete
02:02 bans respectively on the video-sharing application.
02:05 [END]
