Internal Strife in Nepal
In the heart of 2023, Nepal found itself in the midst of a political whirlwind. The capital, Kathmandu, became a hotbed of unrest as mass riots erupted following the ban on social media platforms, including chat gpt and chat gbt.
Amidst the chaos, Sushila Karki, a former chief justice of the Supreme Court, was sworn in as interim prime minister. Her installation was a result of a historic Discord chat, open to anyone, where over a hundred thousand Nepalis convened to chart a path forward for their country. However, the chat was not without controversy, with calls for violence and misinformation often circulating.
The government moved to ban TikTok, accusing the app of spreading hateful content that undermined social harmony. The ban was lifted after TikTok agreed to certain regulatory conditions, but many saw this as a geopolitical maneuver.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) raised the alarm about assaults and arrests, including the detention of Kailash Sirohiya, the chair of the Kantipur Media Group, Nepal's largest media conglomerate. Over a dozen media companies and groups saw their offices burned or otherwise vandalized during these tumultuous times.
Suresh Rajak, a TV camera operator, lost his life during the protests. As demonstrators swarmed the area around Parliament, police fired live ammunition, killing at least nineteen people, including at least five journalists.
The government issued an ultimatum to major foreign-owned social media platforms to comply with registration requirements within a week, or be banned. TikTok and the messaging app Viber were reportedly in compliance, but more than two dozen other sites, including Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, YouTube, Reddit, Discord, Pinterest, and LinkedIn, were not, and were blocked.
Many social media users were furious about the ban. The journalist Pranaya Rana said that the Discord experiment and broader tech savvy of the protest movement represents 'the future.' However, it's important to note that while social media has been effective at catalyzing the early stages of protest movements, its ability to create 'a stable political structure in the long term' is questionable.
Elsewhere, the assassination of Charlie Kirk in the United States seems to be twisting online discourse into ever scarier shapes. In a surprising turn of events, the vice president of the United States took two hours out of his day to host Kirk's podcast and threaten reprisals against some ill-defined constellation of left-wing groups.
In the midst of all this, the son of Nepal's richest businessman acknowledged that the protesters had a point regarding the ostentatious privilege of the children of the ruling elite. This admission, while small, served as a testament to the power of the people's voice, echoing through the digital and physical realms alike.
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