On September 4, 2025, Nepal’s government banned 26 social media platforms after they had failed to comply with new registration requirements. Among the platforms were WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, WeChat, YouTube, and LinkedIn.
When the ban was launched, confusion spread throughout the country. Citizens began to fear how these bans could affect press freedom, the tourism industry, and how families can communicate with relatives working abroad. According to research conducted by the Nepal Economic Forum in 2021, 7.5% of Nepal’s population lives abroad.
Social media users began to switch to TikTok and Viber, making sarcastic remarks that they were going back to “the age of letter exchange.” Meanwhile, Nepal’s regional director for the Committee to Protect Journalists, Beh Lih Yi, announced in a statement that “Nepal’s sweeping ban on social media sets a dangerous precedent to press freedom. The government must immediately rescind this order and restore access to social media platforms, which are essential tools for exercising press freedoms.” Beyond concerns over press freedoms, the ban has also incited disruption in the country’s tourism industry, which contributes 6.7% of its GDP, according to tour operators. Managing director of Shangri-La Nepal Trek, Jiban Ghimire, remarked that for them, “social media used to be a very popular tool for communication. That’s now gone, and it’s a nightmare-like situation. No communication, no business.”
Outraged by the social media ban, protests from young people began to spread throughout the country, growing increasingly violent when demonstrators set fire to government buildings and politicians’ homes on September 8. As rallies of tens of thousands of people swept through the Parliament building, police began to open fire. 17 people were killed and 145 were wounded. Among the injured, many “were in serious condition and [appeared]to have been shot in the head and chest,” according to Dr. Badri Risa at the National Trauma Center, Nepal’s main hospital center. 28 officers had also been wounded, and smaller protests continued into the day. Demonstrators argued that the social media ban wasn’t meant to hold companies accountable, but to censor citizens and silence government opponents and protestors. Crowds outside the Parliament chanted, “Stop the ban on social media. Stop corruption, not social media,” as they waved the country’s national flag.
Since the rally consisted of younger citizens born between 1995 and 2010, it was titled the protest of Gen Z. The demonstrations indicated a larger frustration among college and school students over limited job opportunities and government corruption. By September 9, the death toll from Nepal’s Gen Z protests had risen to 30. 1,033 people were injured from violent clashes involving security forces, as they fired rounds and used tear gas on protestors who attempted to enter Parliament. The National Human Rights Commission of Nepal (NHRC) called the excessive use of force by security personnel “regrettable,” and it urged the government to provide relief and compensate the victims’ families. While doing so, the NHRC also called upon protestors to maintain peace and discipline.
However, the protests continued to escalate, prompting the Home Minister and Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Oli to step down. Protestors had called for Oli’s resignation by setting his house on fire that same day, and quickly celebrated. In the aftermath, Nepalian President Ram Chanudra Paudel invited Gen Z protest leaders for talks, agreeing to dissolve the parliament on September 13. Then, to end the week of violence, new presidential elections were set on March 5.
Thousands of young citizens gathered on social media app Discord to discuss potential new leaders of Nepal. The online group was organized by Hami Nepal, a Gen Z group with more than 160,000 members behind the protest. To let citizens debate, Hami Nepal ran a channel where more than 10,000 people could discuss Nepal’s future. When more people tried to join but failed to log in, a livestream was held on YouTube, allowing nearly 6,000 more people to see the debate. After hours of heated discussions, contact with potential prime minister candidates, and the questioning of protest leaders, participants chose former Chief Justice Sushila Karki to lead Nepal, and she took the oath on September 12. President Paudel’s official statement assigning Karki came two days after intense days of negotiations between himself, Army Chief Ashok Raj Sigdel, and Gen Z protest leaders.
Written by Claire Liu
