Kathmandu: The fresh PM of Nepal, K P Sharma Oli, on Thursday overturned a moratorium on TikTok that his father imposed in Nov, an obvious indication that the former legislator intended to strengthen the government’s relations with China, its northern neighbour.
The well-known social media app, owned by Chinese business ByteDance, was banned for rejecting what the past Nepalese government had labeled as “hate speech” that stifled” cultural harmony.” Nepali officials at the time stated that they had resorted to the ban after TikTok refrained from commenting on unsettling information. A spokeswoman for TikTok expressed satisfaction with the move, saying,” We’re excited to be able to maintain enabling Nepali tones and creativity”.
In light of the political conflict between China and India, Nepal’s southern neighbor that even banned the app, Oli’s belief was that the Himalayan nation should align with China.
Due to previously conflicting relations between the two nations and more new attempts to dominate the North Eastern area, TikTok and many other Chinese applications have been banned in India since 2020.
Prithvi Subba Gurung, a Nepalese state spokesperson, said TikTok would now have to obey by specific guidelines, such as naming a point of contact in the country. We have established a number of requirements, including using TikTok to promote Nepali tourism, supporting us in terms of modern safety, digital literacy, online education, and curbing hateful content, he said.
On Thursday, the Chinese embassy to Nepal, Chen Song, wrote on social media platform X,” Now is a good day”, which some Nepalese took to mean that the talks to restore TikTok had been finalised.
