Riot police use a water cannon on protesters outdoors Parliament in Kathmandu, Nepal, Monday, Sept. 8, 2025.
Niranjan Shrestha/AP
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Niranjan Shrestha/AP
KATHMANDU, Nepal — Nepal’s authorities lifted its ban on social media platforms Tuesday a day after police killed opened hearth on mass road protests in opposition to the ban, killing 19 individuals.
The district administration ordered an indefinite curfew within the capital and colleges had been closed. A curfew was additionally imposed in two different cities.
A number of extensively used social networks, together with Fb, X and YouTube had been blocked within the Himalayan nation final week after failing to adjust to a brand new requirement to register and undergo authorities oversight.
Rallies in opposition to the ban swelled to tens of 1000’s of individuals in Kathmandu and crowds surrounded the Parliament constructing earlier than police opened hearth on the demonstrators.
“Stop the ban on social media. Stop corruption, not social media,” the crowds chanted, waving nationwide flags. Monday’s rally was known as the protest of Gen Z, which typically refers to individuals born between 1995 and 2010.
Seven of these killed and scores of the wounded had been obtained on the Nationwide Trauma Heart, the nation’s major hospital.
“Many of them are in serious condition and appear to have been shot in the head and chest,” stated Dr. Badri Risa. Households waited for information of their kin whereas individuals lined as much as donate blood.
Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Oli stated in an announcement he was forming an investigating committee to submit a report in 15 days and that compensation can be given for the lives misplaced and free therapy for the wounded.
House Minister Ramesh Lekhak additionally resigned at an emergency Cupboard assembly late Monday.
The violence unfolded as Nepal’s authorities pursues a broader try to manage social media with a invoice aimed toward making certain the platforms are “properly managed, responsible and accountable.” The proposal has been extensively criticized as a device for censorship and for punishing authorities opponents who voice their protests on-line.
The registration requirement utilized to about two dozen social networks extensively utilized in Nepal.
Neither Google, which owns YouTube, nor Meta, the guardian firm of Fb, Instagram and WhatsApp, responded to requests for remark from The Related Press. Elon Musk’s X platform didn’t reply both.
The video-sharing app TikTok, Viber and three different platforms have registered and operated with out interruption.
The invoice contains asking the businesses to nominate a liaison workplace or some extent of contact within the nation. Rights teams have known as it an try by the federal government to curb freedom of expression and elementary rights.
Nepal in 2023 banned TikTok for disrupting “social harmony, goodwill and diffusing indecent materials.” The ban was lifted final yr after TikTok’s executives pledged to adjust to native legal guidelines, together with a ban of pornographic websites that was handed in 2018.
