Nepal has lifted a social media ban, which sparked protests and led to clashes with police that left at least 19 people dead and injured more than 100 others.<\/p>\n
In the weeks before the ban, a \u201cnepo kid\u201d campaign, spotlighting the lavish lifestyles of politicians\u2019 children and allegations of corruption, had taken off on social media.<\/p>\n
When the government moved to ban 26 social media platforms, including Facebook and YouTube, protests erupted with thousands of young people storming parliament in the capital Kathmandu on Monday. Several districts are now under a curfew.<\/p>\n
A government minister said they lifted the ban after an emergency meeting late on Monday night to \u201caddress the demands of Gen Z\u201d.<\/p>\n
Last week, Nepal\u2019s government ordered authorities to block 26 social media platforms for not complying with a deadline to register with Nepal\u2019s ministry of communication and information technology.<\/p>\n
Platforms such as Instagram and Facebook have millions of users in Nepal, who rely on them for entertainment, news and business.<\/p>\n
But the government had justified its ban, implemented last week, in the name of tackling fake news, hate speech and online fraud.<\/p>\n
Young people who took to the streets on Monday said they were also protesting against what they saw as the authoritarian attitude of the government. Many held placards with slogans including \u201cenough is enough\u201d and \u201cend to corruption\u201d.<\/p>\n
Some protesters hurled stones at Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli\u2019s house in his hometown Damak.<\/p>\n
One protester, Sabana Budathoki had earlier told the BBC that the social media ban was \u201cjust the reason\u201d they gathered.<\/p>\n
\u201cRather than [the] social media ban, I think everyone\u2019s focus is on corruption,\u201d she explained, adding: \u201cWe want our country back. We came to stop corruption.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Monday, police in Kathmandu had fired water cannons, batons and rubber bullets to disperse the protesters.<\/p>\n
Prime Minister Oli said he was \u201cdeeply saddened\u201d by the violence and casualty toll, and blamed the day\u2019s events on \u201cinfiltration by various vested interest groups\u201d.<\/p>\n
The government would set up a panel to investigate the protests, he said, adding that it would also offer financial \u201crelief\u201d to the families of those who died and free treatment to those injured.<\/p>\n
Home Minister Ramesh Lekhak submitted his resignation on Monday evening following intense criticism over his administration\u2019s use of force during the protests.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Nepal has lifted a social media ban, which sparked protests and led to clashes with police that left at least 19 people dead and injured more than 100 others. In the weeks before the ban, a \u201cnepo kid\u201d campaign, spotlighting the lavish lifestyles of politicians\u2019 children and allegations of corruption, had taken off on social […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-121090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121090","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121090"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121090\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}