Are Nepal’s Leaders Blocking Social Media to Contain Rising Political Rivals?

Government Blocks 26 Platforms as Independent Leaders Gain Mass Support Online

September 5, 2025

Photo of Nepal’s Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli, by the Prime Minister’s Office, under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence, via Wikimedia Commons.

Nepal’s government has ordered a nationwide shutdown of 26 social media platforms. The move appears aimed at suppressing independent political voices who have demonstrated credible governance and built popular support by engaging directly with citizens online, outside the control of established party structures.

The Ministry of Communications instructed the Nepal Telecommunications Authority to block all platforms, including Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, X (formerly Twitter), WhatsApp and LinkedIn, that had not registered with the government. The criteria for registration included appointing a local representative, establishing a grievance redressal mechanism and agreeing to self-regulation guidelines.

While TikTok, Viber, Nimbuzz and a few others already comply with the requirements, the remaining platforms are registered only as taxpayers. The government cited a Supreme Court directive from August to justify the shutdown, claiming it was necessary to address cybercrime, hate speech and digital impersonation.

Media and civil society organisations across Nepal strongly opposed the move, calling it unconstitutional and arbitrary. They argued that it bypassed Parliament, undermined free speech and shrank civic space. Critics point out that such restrictions on digital communication violate the very principles enshrined in Nepal’s Constitution and international human rights treaties the country is party to.

Laxman Datt Pant, Founding Chair of Media Action Nepal, said in a statement, “By imposing such a ban through an administrative order, the government has launched an outrageous attack on freedom of expression and independent journalism, in clear violation of Nepal’s Constitution and its international commitments under human rights treaties.”

The crackdown comes at a time when a new generation of political figures has been gaining national prominence through social media. Kathmandu’s mayor, Balendra Shah, and Dharan’s mayor, Harka Sampang, are the most notable examples. Both won office as independents, defeating candidates from the major parties, and both built their public image through direct online engagement with citizens.

Shah, an engineer and former rapper, rose to political relevance with an anti-corruption message and urban reform agenda. He live-streamed council meetings, cleared waste from city streets and revived neglected public infrastructure. These activities were documented, promoted and amplified almost entirely through social media.

Harka Sampang’s campaign focused on water access in Dharan, and his first act as mayor was to lead residents in building a 42-kilometre pipeline for clean drinking water. This citizen-led movement was mobilised through Facebook videos and livestreams. His governance style, which relied more on community participation than bureaucratic procedure, would not have reached a national audience without the digital space he carved out.

Another figure relevant to this context is Rabi Lamichhane, the founder of the Rashtriya Swatantra Party. A former television journalist, Lamichhane used his media reach and later social media platforms to build a nationwide following, particularly among young and urban voters disillusioned with the mainstream parties. His party emerged as the fourth largest in the 2022 elections, securing 20 seats in the federal parliament, thanks to digital visibility that translated into electoral success.

The timing of the shutdown, roughly eighteen months before the next national elections are due, raises concerns.

Social media has allowed these leaders to bypass legacy party systems, build mass followings and emerge as potential players in national politics. That makes them a threat to the established parties that dominate Parliament and state institutions. The shutdown of platforms that fuel their popularity appears less like regulation and more like a method of containment.

Balendra Shah did respond to the September 2025 social media shutdown with a satirical poem on Facebook. In that post, he wrote, “We’ll meet only in dreams, if roads are blocked,” referring to the restrictions as roadblocks. He criticised the decision as arrogance and assured citizens that barriers cannot sever their connection. The statement was published and circulated before access to platforms like Facebook was suspended.

This is not the first time the government has attempted to control digital platforms.

In late 2023, TikTok was briefly banned under similar pretexts before the decision was overturned following public pressure. That episode already revealed a pattern in which the state seeks to assert dominance over online platforms when public discourse becomes uncomfortable or unruly. The current ban is broader, more systematic and affects a larger section of the population.

A Social Media Bill is also in draft form. If passed in its current version, it will introduce vague and sweeping powers to penalise any content deemed to carry “malicious intent.” Penalties include heavy fines and potential imprisonment. The bill’s language is open to interpretation, and if enacted, it could be used to criminalise dissent, satire, or independent reporting. It would also hand the government unprecedented power to define the limits of digital expression.

The consequences of this are wide-reaching.

Nepal’s urban youth, its diaspora and its emerging civic leaders have all relied on these platforms to question authority, organise around shared concerns and build new political identities. The ban cuts off a key space for accountability and political imagination. It locks the digital front door while leaving the backrooms of power untouched.

Nepal’s democratic institutions were already under strain. Parliament rarely functions as a site of meaningful debate and the judiciary has increasingly appeared deferential to the executive. This social media ban further isolates citizens from the levers of governance. It also serves a warning to any future political aspirant hoping to use digital platforms to challenge elite consensus.

It seems the future of politics in Nepal is set to be contested not only in public squares but also within the digital infrastructure of code, servers and devices that connect citizens with their leaders and with one another.

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