Deleted pure and simple. The TikTok app was banned this Monday by Nepalese authorities, as it was accused of violating social harmony in the country, reported BBC.
Nepal’s Communications and Information Technology Minister Rekha Sharma told the BBC’s Nepal branch that the platform was broadcasting dangerous content. The ban comes into effect “immediately” after the government’s decision, and telecom operators must implement the measure, the minister added.
“There are other social networks for entertainment”
However, this radical decision was not unanimously approved in the country: “The misuse of social networks (including other media) must be regulated. But saying that one platform has destroyed social harmony and weakened nationalism is not understanding technological developments,” said lawmaker Shishir Khanal, a former education minister. “There are other social networks for entertainment. We haven’t done anything about Facebook, Twitter, etc. “, defended Rekha Sharma from her opponents.
The move is part of a new social media law that requires proprietary companies to have a liaison office in Nepal. According to local media, more than 1,600 legal cases related to TikTok have been recorded over the past four years.
Nepal is not the first government entity to take such a decision: India, for example, banned TikTok and WeChat, an app that is hugely popular in China, in early June 2020. In the United States, the state of Montana has already banned them. TikTok in May, while the British parliament passed provisions in March banning access to the app on Wi-Fi networks and blocking the app on professional phones given to staff.
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