Kathmandu: A member of Parliament of Nepal’s House of Representatives has called for a complete enforcement of law to ban the Chinese video-sharing platform TikTok which was banned by the government of Nepal earlier in November 2023. Pradip Yadav, chief whip of Janata Samajbadi Party (JSP), on Friday’s lower house meeting called for the government’s action to completely ban TikTok which was blocked by government owing to complaints of spreading social disharmony.
At Friday’s meeting, Yadav stated that some of the Internet Service Providers were not abiding by the government’s decision to ban TikTok making it operational on their client’s mobile phones. “Government of Nepal weeks back imposed ban on Tik-Tok which indeed is a welcome move. This particular social media platform was being misused to spread hatred and create social disharmony on the basis of community, religion, culture and customs as well as the family structure. It was a means to bring in disparity and disharmony, it still is progressing because the government-imposed ban on Tik-Tok but it got confined only in paper. Some Internet Service Providers (ISP) haven’t abided government’s decision to ban it, the state should take necessary actions,” Chief Whip of JSP, Pradip Yadav said.
The Himalayan Nation on November 13 through a cabinet meeting had decided to ban the Chinese video sharing platform Tik-Tok alleging it of disrupting the social harmony, breaking off the family and societal relation. Chinese social media Tik Tok does not have any provisions to remove offensive contents. Following the cabinet level decision on November, the Nepal Telecommunication Authority of Nepal had sent a stern warning to all the Internet Service Providers against failure to shut the Chinese social media platform TikTok.
“According to the decision of the Council of Ministers of Nepal on 07/27/2080, due to the negative impact on the social harmony and social environment through Tiktok, which is being used as a social network, the authority given by section 15 of the Telecommunications Act, 2053 is used to implement the said decision,” release from the Nepal Telecommunication Authority states.
The NTA also had warned of taking actions as per the Section 47 of Telecommunications Act, 2053 at the time. Following which, the ISPslicense of some of the ISP also were revoked. Though the Chief Whip of JSP called on government to enforce strict measures he didn’t mention the name or the number of service providers who is yet to abide by the law.
Soon after the ban on Tik-Tok over a dozen petitions were filed at the Supreme Court of Nepal requesting an interim order to immediately lift the ban. But the court on November 21, 2023 had denied to issue an immediate order. Instead, the supreme legislative body of Nepal has issued show cause notice against the government over its decision to ban the Tik Tok which was made on 13 November, 2023. A single bench hearing conducted by justice Binod Sharma had issued the order.
A total of 13 writ petitions were filed at the Supreme Court against the move of the government seeking an interim order to lift the ban imposed through the meeting of the Council of Ministers. The Government defending the ban has claimed that the app has been violating the harmony in the society.
Petitioners also had demanded for an interim order from the Supreme Court over the ban on the video sharing social media platform which had about 2 million users in the Himalayan Nation. Writ petitions filed in the Supreme Court claiming the ban undermines the Freedom of expression of the public violating the provisions of the constitutions.
Later, through a final hearing the court stayed on the decision of the government to ban the video sharing platform. Meanwhile, in India, the government had in June 2020 banned TikTok along with several other Chinese apps, over national security concerns. Prior to the ban, the app had about 150 million monthly active users in India. Moreover, concerning the security issues with the TikTok app, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Afghanistan, Denmark, Netherlands, New Zealand and Norway have imposed partial or complete bans respectively on the video-sharing application. (ANI)
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