The Ministry of Communication and Information Technology of Nepal has issued an order requiring all social media platforms to be registered in Nepal.

Based on this, the Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA) has instructed all network service providers to deactivate 26 platforms, including Signal, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, YouTube, and others.

To lift the ban and operate legally in Nepal, each platform must:

  1. Register with the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology.

  2. Appoint in Nepal:

    • A Point of Contact
    • A Resident Grievance Handling Officer
    • An Officer responsible for monitoring compliance with self-regulation [1]

  3. Submit an application in the prescribed format along with required documents, as per the Directives on Managing the Use of Social Media Networks (2080 B.S.). [2]

Reference:

[1] Notice by the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology on Managing the Social Networking Platform Usage in Nepal

[2] Directives for Managing the Use of Social Networks, 2023

  • birdwing@lemmy.blahaj.zone
    8·
    3 months ago

    Good move of Nepal to ban Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Whatsapp, VK, WeChat, Threads, as well as Facebook, LinkedIn, Facebook Messenger, Pinterest, and Discord.

    That said, Mastodon and Signal also being included, is dumb. What Nepal could do better, is that upon visiting one of the banned sites, users are advised to download another, decentralised medium.

  • commander@lemmy.world
    7·
    3 months ago

    One of the reasons I prefer Matrix even though anyone I know in real life uses Signal so I use Signal practically everyday but Matrix sparingly. Federated matrix servers. I worry how resilient Signal can be if enough countries ban it, not really confident in the US or EU countries or any countries long term for encrypted chat for the Signal Foundation, and also signing up with phone numbers. Phone number providers being another point of regulation

    • Pearl@lemmy.ml
      10·
      3 months ago

      I worry how resilient Signal can be if enough countries ban it

      I don’t think signal devs are just going to sit around crying that signal got banned.

      Probably go the route of tor browser and have signed installer distributed amongst multiple mirrors.

      • Autonomous User@lemmy.worldEnglish
        3·
        3 months ago

        We’re still waiting. Everyone else has done this while Signal is getting left behind. It’s still effective at combatting anti-libre malware, WhatsApp and Discord.

    • abbiistabbii@lemmy.blahaj.zone
      7·
      3 months ago

      I want you to look around the world political landscape around tech and ask yourself if you think most of these chucklefucks even understand what they actually say. They only care that they won’t like it and want it gone and think writing that down on special paper makes it go poof.

      I live in a “developed” country and my country past the online safety act and most of the people who did so didn’t know what a VPN was. Three previous administrations, The Blair-Brown one, the conservative one, and the latest one, have all floated the idea of banning encryption in some form. Do you really think the Nepali government understand what Mastodon is other maybe “it’s a bit like Twitter”.

      Most people in Nepal with any sort of sense have a VPN to get around this.

        • ax1on@sh.itjust.worksOP
          1·
          3 months ago

          Yes, while most ISPs have only blocked these platforms at the DNS level, a few have also started blocking their IP addresses.

          • littleguy@lemmy.cif.su
            1·
            3 months ago

            That’s fucking bullshit.

            My government’s citizens should pray it doesn’t reach that point, because it’s a legitimately good reason to finally go postal.

    • Ardens@lemmy.ml
      1·
      3 months ago

      Facebook is considered social media… It’s far from. The term “social media” today, just means that there’s people there, and they can talk/write with each other. 20 yrs ago, it was a moderated and safe place to meet people anonymously, and then if you clicked, you could decide to meet IRL. I made lots of friends back then. Since 2008 I have maybe made 3 friends online on FB… Most on FB are internet warriors.

  • abbiistabbii@lemmy.blahaj.zone
    1·
    3 months ago

    I had a quick look at Hamro Patro. It’s a Nepali calendar app which features news, horoscopes, exchange rates, radio and podcasts. It is the most popular natively developed app in Nepal basically.

    Just to put this into context: Imagine if the American Government banned the NBC app or the British Government banned the Sky News app.

  • wolfiedafloof@lemmy.world
    1·
    3 months ago

    I have no plan in going to Nepal. However, let’s say I get signal in one country where its allowed, and then I travel to Nepal where its banned. What would be my struggles? I can still use signal, right? Its just that I won’t be able to download it from Nepal via google play store (which I’m not using anyway). Signal can still give away the APK file but would assume Nepal censors their website at the end of the day. Could be bypassed via VPN though, if its still legal in the country of course (probably not).