After reacting with force to pitched protests, on a day of clashes that killed at least 19 people, Nepal’s government signaled late Monday that it would retreat from a ban on some of the world’s biggest social media platforms that helped set off the unrest.
The protests, which were also fueled by anger over corruption, were the most widespread in Nepal’s recent history. The security forces’ violent response only added to the pressure on the government. Opposition parties and some members of his coalition alike called for Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli to resign.
In the capital, Kathmandu, protesters surged toward the Parliament complex, occupying a security post before being dispersed by the police, according to witnesses. It was not immediately clear how those who died were killed, or how hundreds of others were wounded, but the witnesses said the authorities had used live ammunition against the crowd, in addition to rubber bullets and water cannons.
The demonstrators, who appeared to be mostly teenagers and young adults, have embraced the label “Gen Z protest.” A Nepalese official acknowledged their youth in disclosing that the government would retreat from its move against more than two dozen social media platforms.
“To address the demands raised by Gen Z, a social media ban will be lifted,” Prithvi Subba Gurung, minister for communication and information technology, said in an interview with The New York Times. Access to the platforms, among them Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram and WeChat, will gradually be restored, he said.
The ban went into effect on Thursday for platforms that officials said had failed to comply with new requirements to register with the government.
It was not just the social media ban that sent protesters spilling into the streets of the capital and around Nepal. Outrage has also been growing over economic inequality and what many Nepalese see as the government’s failure to aggressively pursue high-profile corruption cases.
Local news media reported that at least 400 people have been injured in the unrest.
As protesters in Kathmandu clashed with law enforcement officers, the authorities forbid gatherings in the area around the Parliament complex. The demonstrations continued, however, with protesters blocking highways as troops and paramilitary forces deployed by the government struggled to control the crowds.
Mr. Oli held an emergency cabinet meeting on Monday at which the home affairs minister,said he would resign.
Mr. Gurung, the communications minister, suggested that the protests had been infiltrated, exacerbating tensions, without naming anyone or any group. He said an investigation was underway.
Some in Nepal have suggested that supporters of the monarchy, which was abolished in 2008, may have helped foment the unrest. Protests in March demanding restoration of royal rule led to at least two deaths earlier this year. But the demonstrations on Monday were far larger.
“This may be the most violent social and political unrest in modern Nepal,” said Prof. Jeevan Sharma, chair of South Asia and International Development at the University of Edinburgh, who is in Nepal conducting research.
Professor Sharma said the social media ban had created “overwhelming anger” and had “curtailed democratic space and freedom of expression.”
The protests spread to other parts of Nepal, including Pokhara in the country’s center, the Chitwan district in the southwest and Janakpur, southeast of the capital.
In Kathmandu, eight people died after being taken to the National Trauma Center, according to Dipendra Pandey, a doctor there. At Kathmandu Medical College, two others died, and 28 others arrived with injuries, according to another doctor, Bibek Limbu. Three people from the protests died at Civil Service Hospital, according to its executive director, Dr. Mohan Chandra Regmi.
“Our emergency ward is overloaded,” Dr. Regmi said.
Free speech is highly prized in Nepal, which has maintained robust space for debate as democratic freedoms have shrunk in other South Asian countries. After a decade-long Maoist rebellion that claimed nearly 18,000 lives, Parliament voted to abolish the monarchy in 2008, and a new constitution was introduced in 2015.
“If the Congress government cannot protect democracy, it must immediately step down,” said Rajendra Bajgain, a member of Parliament from the Nepali Congress party, which is part of Mr. Oli’s governing coalition. He called for lifting the social media restrictions.
Meta, the company that owns Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram, did not immediately respond to multiple requests for comment on Monday about its decision not to register with the government under the new law. Late on Monday night, access to some of the company’s apps in Nepal appeared to have been restored.
In November 2023, Nepal banned TikTok, saying the app had disrupted “social harmony.” TikTok agreed to register with the government, and the ban was lifted nine months later. TikTok remains available in Nepal.
Social media is a critical communication tool for Nepal, in large part because many citizens work abroad and send money back home. Many businesses, too, use platforms like WhatsApp to operate.
Nayana Prakash, a research fellow at the Chatham House research institute in London who studies the use of technology in South Asia, said that governments were often slow to understand that “cutting off these social media tools is also cutting off employment.”
She also said that social media had become a vector for criticism of what is perceived to be a two-tier society, in which children of the elite have advantages not available to ordinary people. Hashtags such as #nepobabies and #nepokids have sprung up in Nepal to express that sense of injustice, she said.
The protests on Monday may also have been fueled by social media posts about recent demonstrations in Indonesia and an uprising last year that toppled the government in Bangladesh, both of which appeared to show the political power of young people. Many of those who demonstrated on Monday wore their school and college uniforms to emphasize their youth, witnesses said.
Frustration has also mounted with the two main political parties, the Nepali Congress and Mr. Oli’s Communist Party of Nepal, which are in a coalition for the first time, according to Professor Sharma.
“The two big parties have effectively captured the state, the judiciary and the media,” he said. “There’s no credible opposition in the Parliament.”
Responding to the violence on Monday, the United Nations human rights office spokesperson, Ravina Shamdasani, called for a “prompt and transparent investigation” into the day’s events. “We have received several deeply worrying allegations of unnecessary or disproportionate use of force by security forces during protests organized by youth groups,” she said.
In Nepal, the embassies of Australia, Finland, France, Japan, Korea, Britain and the United States issued a joint statement on Monday affirming “strong support for the universal rights of peaceful assembly and freedom of expression” and urging “all parties to exercise maximum restraint.”
Ephrat Livni contributed reporting.
Matthew Mpoke Bigg is a London-based reporter on the Live team at The Times, which covers breaking and developing news.
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