DoomsdaysCW<p>What <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Authoritarians" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Authoritarians</span></a> May Learn About <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Censorship" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Censorship</span></a> From <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Nepal" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Nepal</span></a>’s <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Protests" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Protests</span></a></p><p>by Charlie Campbell<br>Updated: Sep 10, 2025 10:07 AM ET</p><p>Excerpt: "An eerie calm returned to Nepal on Wednesday after an army-enforced curfew paused two days of anti-government protests that had convulsed the capital Kathmandu and other cities, with predominantly young demonstrators burning tires, ransacking ministries, and invading politicians’ homes so that the occupants had to be airlifted to safety.</p><p>"At least 22 people lost their lives and hundreds more were injured by security forces in the carnage, which was ostensibly sparked by state attempts to block access to social media but in truth reflect an explosion of long bottled-up rage against political corruption and widespread inequality in the Himalayan nation of 30 million.</p><p>"The banning of 26 social-media platforms including Facebook, YouTube, and X was officially due to the companies’ failure to register and submit to government oversight, though protesters attributed the move as an attempt to block the crescendo of online complaints from young people furious at the <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/LuxuriousLifestyles" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>LuxuriousLifestyles</span></a> enjoyed by children of the <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/PoliticalElite" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>PoliticalElite</span></a>, so-called '<a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/NepoKids" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>NepoKids</span></a>.'</p><p>"The disparity between what ordinary Nepalis experience and what they saw flaunted online prompted calls last week for <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/MassProtests" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>MassProtests</span></a> — calls which only mushroomed following the hamfisted social-media ban. Even after that prohibition was lifted on Tuesday, and the resignations of Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli and Home Minister Ramesh Lekhak, the unrest escalated.</p><p>" 'The government in Nepal was trying to use those new social-media regulations to prevent the very thing that happened,;' says Michael Kugelman, a D.C.-based South Asia analyst. 'So it completely backfired.'</p><p>"The power of social media to foment popular protest is no stranger to Asia, where the internet has been a key driver of popular uprisings that toppled governments in Sri Lanka in 2022 and Bangladesh in 2024, and continue to roil Indonesia today. But it’s a phenomenon that first came to light in the 2010 Arab Spring, when a series of anti-government protests swept the Middle East and North Africa that were predominately organized online.</p><p>"Most notably, and in a clear augury of Nepal today, efforts during the <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/ArabSpring" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>ArabSpring</span></a> to block social-media access simply cut a head of the hydra: highlighting the state’s blatant disregard for freedom of speech and assembly, vindicating the protesters’ complaints, and widening sympathy for their demands.</p><p>"Little wonder authoritarian states were spurred by the Arab Spring into enacting draconian internet controls. Across Nepal’s northern frontier, <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/China" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>China</span></a>’s Great Firewall became the poster child for tightly regulated online space. Not only does the <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/GreatFirewall" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>GreatFirewall</span></a> block undesirable external information but also weeds out and proscribes politically sensitive domestic content."</p><p>Read more:<br><a href="https://time.com/7315858/nepal-protests-social-media-ban-authoritarian-censorship-internet-freedom-analysis/?utm_source=firefox-newtab-en-us" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">time.com/7315858/nepal-protest</span><span class="invisible">s-social-media-ban-authoritarian-censorship-internet-freedom-analysis/?utm_source=firefox-newtab-en-us</span></a> </p><p><a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Censorship" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Censorship</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/IncomeDisparity" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>IncomeDisparity</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/YeetTheRich" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>YeetTheRich</span></a></p>