by Christos Zabounis

Until recently, Nepal was the last Hindu monarchy in the world. A Marxist coup overthrew King Dipendra, who had previously assassinated his predecessor King Birendra. This historic introduction is intended to mark the starting point of the Nepalese government’s recent decision to ban TikTok from the country’s 2.2 million users. The left-wing policy, which has been in place since 2008, includes requiring social media companies to have offices in Kathmandu, pay taxes and comply with state laws. TikTok declined.

“It disrupts our social harmony, family structure and family relationships,” argued the Minister of Communications, Technology and Information for the measures. The opposition characterized the initiative as a restriction on individual freedom of expression, but other political analysts pointed to the risk of interception of personal data by the Chinese-owned platform. Nepal did not lead the way in banning the use of TikTok. It was preceded by the United States of America, which through the White House ordered the app to be removed from the devices of public sector workers, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Canada, the European Union for its employees, Belgium , the Netherlands, France, Australia, NATO and even Somalia. The war against the “China weapon” as he called it, was started by Donald Trump, but the administration of Joe Biden has not yet come up with the draft law that will have to be approved by the Congress. One solution being favored is for the Chinese company ByteDance to be acquired by an American company.