The Government’s Preparation To Remove The Ban On TikTok The government has prepared to open the ban on the social network TikTok. After the Chinese side repeatedly questioned the ban on TikTok, the government started the homework to open the ban.
The government led by Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda on 23 Kartik 2080 brought social media regulation guidelines, including provisions that social media should be registered in Nepal and have a point of contact. Soon after, on Kartik 27, the Council of Ministers meeting decided to close Tiktok, saying that it had spread social hatred and violated social dignity.
Before taking this decision, Prime Minister Prachanda consulted with parties including Congress and UML. That is why major parties gave silent support to the ban. TikTok has given a written commitment to abide by all the laws and conditions of Nepal. And, it has been demanding to remove the ban.
But since the government did not remove the ban, the Chinese Ambassador to Nepal Chan Song has been concerned about the ban on TikTok in every political meeting.
An official from the Prime Minister’s and Cabinet Office said, “Since geopolitics is also connected with Tiktok’s ban, there is an analysis of whether it will be difficult to make a decision. But now the Prime Minister is in favor of not keeping this ban for a long time. There may be a decision to lift the ban from the Council of Ministers soon.”
India imposed a complete ban on TikTok in 2020, while the US has a limited ban. More than half of the states, federal governments, and security forces have banned the app from running on their employee devices. Currently, more than 30 countries have a partial or complete ban on TikTok.
TikTok has also received repeated correspondence asking the government to open the ban. Only a week ago, the Public Policy and Government Relations Unit of South Asia wrote a letter to the Minister of Communications and Information Technology, Prithvi Subba Gurung, reiterating that they are committed to complying with all laws of Nepal.
After Tiktok sent a letter stating that every legal provision of Nepal is acceptable to them, the Minister of Communications had a discussion with the Prime Minister.
In about 9 months, Tiktok has already sent 8 letters demanding to lift the ban. Immediately after the ban decision, the government wrote to the Nepal Telecommunication Authority on October 30 and the Ministry of Communication on November 20 and promised to directly address Nepal’s interest or concerns about the content on its platform and to appoint a focal point (contact point) to address it.
There is a problem that the system does not recognize some of the obscene materials using the Nepali language and does not filter them. Keeping that in mind, Tiktok is committed to onboarding Nepali language sources to increase content filtering and moderation.
TikTok has opened access to the ‘Trust and Safety Enforcement Tool (TSET) system for reporting any content that violates the law for the Government of Nepal. Tiktok said it has registered as a digital service taxpayer in Nepal and has removed millions of videos from the platform that violate community guidelines.
A dozen cases were filed in the Supreme Court claiming that the ban on TikTok has taken away the constitutional right to freedom of speech and expression. On 5 Magsir 2080, the bench of Justice Vinod Sharma issued a show cause order in the name of the government without issuing an interim order. A new hearing of this case has been scheduled for Ashoj 10, 2081.
