In Nepal, the Supreme Court will examine around ten petitions next week seeking the annulment of a government order banning the Tik Tok application throughout the country.
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This initiative goes against actions taken in several countries, notably in the United States where last week, President Joe Biden ratified a law forcing the Chinese creator of TikTok to sell the platform’s activities to an American company. If Bytedance does not comply with this law, Americans will no longer be able to use TikTok. For questions of sovereignty, influence, use of personal data, several States are today moving in the same direction as the United States.
Nepal, one of the first countries to ban the application
In November 2023, the Nepalese government suspended TikTok, but this measure was immediately opposed by a large part of public opinion. TikTok was the only communication space allowing the opposition to denounce “the immoral practices” of Nepalese leaders. By depriving 2.2 million Nepalis of TikTok, the government has above all dealt a very heavy blow to the economy. A gastronomic influencer explains that overnight she lost 50% of her turnover. “Half of my business model was based on the TikTok network. I could anticipate my income a month in advance, on a basis of trust between my subscribers and me. Everything has collapsed, my customers have disappeared and I can no longer answer them.”
Social harmony in danger
Officially, the network was detrimental to “social harmony” in Nepal. According to the government, TikTok helped spread hate speech and highlighted cybercrime.
Nepal has followed India’s lead to protect itself from Beijing’s influence, but Nepal’s Prime Minister… Pushpa Kamal Dahal spends most of his time saying both “yes” to Xi Jinping and ” yes” to Narendra Modi. Geographically, Nepal is stuck between these two superpowers and that complicates things.
This policy no longer suited certain radical movements culturally closer to New Delhi, groups which had become very active on TikTok. The brutal suppression of the network was considered an undemocratic and unconstitutional measure by around thirty Nepalese organizations.