Nepal Bans TikTok, the massively popular short video platform owned by ByteDance with over a billion active users worldwide. The platform is being banned in another nation within a short period of time.
There have been several controversies surrounding the platform, especially in the US and this ban doesn’t really come as a shock.
Nepal Bans TikTok
Nepal has a population of around 30 million, and this directly indicates that TikTok has lost 30 million users as Nepal bans TikTok. The Himalayan nation has imposed a law forcing social media platforms to register with the local government. This decision was made soon after, as first reported by the New York Times. Citing the Nepali government, the report said that TikTok’s reluctance to remove hate content was harming “social harmony.”
In particular, TikTok content that “stoking religious hate, violence and sexual abuse and has led to clashes offline, forcing curfews and the deployment of the police.” is causing concern for Nepalese officials.
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Reaction to TikTok’s explosive growth has increased as nations become more cautious of China’s influence. In the midst of intensifying border tensions between India and China, the app saw a substantial decline in market share in 2021 after being blocked on hundreds of Chinese internet platforms, including the messaging behemoth WeChat. Due to worries that Beijing would obtain access to TikTok user data, Montana became the first state in the union to outlaw the app in May.
TikTok has been subject to varying degrees of limitations in several other countries, such as Canada and the U.K. These prohibitions primarily prevent government workers from utilizing the addictive, algorithm-driven short video app.
TikTok has insisted for a long time that it does not provide data to the Chinese authorities. The app invested up to $1.5 billion in “Project Texas” to keep user data onshore in the United States, which is its largest market.
