Nepal's government announced that it would ban the popular short video app, TikTok, as it was causing disruption to social structures in the country.
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Nepal Cites Disruption to Social Harmony as Banning Reason
In a press conference, Nepal's minister of communication and information technology, Rekha Sharma explained that the social media platform has been impacting families and social structures of the country. Hence, the cabinet decided to ban the app for the moment. The government has also asked internet service providers to remove access to the app.
"After a long discussion on how to control the tendency to spread disharmony, disorder, and chaos in the society ... a consensus was reached among all political parties, including both the ruling party and the opposition," Nepali Prime minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal stated. Currently, Nepal's largest internet service provider has already complied with the order, while the other providers are expected to follow soon.
In a report by Reuters, over 1,600 TikTok-related cyber crime cases have been logged in Nepal within four years. These incidents are just some of the factors that contributed to the decision to control the app's presence in the country.
TikTok Gets Blocked on Several Countries
This is not the first time that the Bytedance-owned platform has been banned. Highly progressive countries such as the US, Australia, Britain, Canada, and New Zealand, have also placed restrictions on TikTok, specifically for government workers. Earlier this year, the White House gave federal agencies 30 days to remove TikTok from all government-issued devices. Australia followed through the same procedure last April.
In Asia, India, a country that used to have around 120 million users, had decided to block the country. The ban was also extended to other well-known Chinese apps, citing that they posed a "threat to sovereignty and integrity."
Despite several restrictions, TikTok remains one of the most used apps these days with over 1.6 billion users globally.
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