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Nepal Bans 26 Social Media Platforms, Including Facebook and YouTube

nytimes.com

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Re: Nepal Bans 26 Social Media Platforms, Including Facebook and YouTube

#21

Post by owisd »

SilverElfin wrote: post #2

Sad to see anti free speech sentiments all over the world. It was constrained to only some areas but now it’s normalized even in places like the UK. I guess with all that’s happening, Nepal doesn’t surprise me.

Free speech existed before social media, so banning social media can't be any less free speech than how things were then. Also the USA has for decades been an outlier in taking an extreme interpretation of free speech that considers, say, Fox News an acceptable use of free speech. Plenty of countries where the regulator would find Fox News unacceptable rank higher than the USA on freedom & democracy indices, so there was always going to be pushback from other countries if the USA attempted to impose the Fox-Newsification of social media on others.

Re: Nepal Bans 26 Social Media Platforms, Including Facebook and YouTube

#22

Post by thisislife2 »

forgotoldacc wrote: post #5

It's pretty strange how the floodgates opened in 2025 and seemingly every government decided to try this to some extent in unison. I wonder what their real reason is for this and how much governments discussed this together.

It's because the rest of the world has realised how deeply tied Western and Chinese BigTech are deeply tied to US and Chinese intelligence agencies, respectively (surveillance capitalism). The active lobbying made by the US government against data privacy laws (especially to store data locally and not share it with foreign entities) is just one example of a red flag that has lead to this.

(I fully support this move - there is absolutely no way any foreign government should have control and influence over your - communication platform and your media platforms.)

Re: Nepal Bans 26 Social Media Platforms, Including Facebook and YouTube

#23

Post by _Algernon_ »

sonicggg wrote: post #7
SilverElfin wrote: post #2

Sad to see anti free speech sentiments all over the world. It was constrained to only some areas but now it’s normalized even in places like the UK. I guess with all that’s happening, Nepal doesn’t surprise me.

Ironic to read about free speech here where a bunch of stuff gets "[flagged]" when it does not agree with the hive mind.

https://xkcd.com/1357/

Re: Nepal Bans 26 Social Media Platforms, Including Facebook and YouTube

#24

Post by DangitBobby »

Fade_Dance wrote: post #20
whatsupdog wrote: post #16

Americans: social media is bad! It should be banned. Americans, after an Asian country does it: free speech!!!

It's almost like it's a country of 300 million people with a diverse set of views. The group that outright wants social media banned in the US, talks down Zuckerberg, etc, by and large will be perfectly fine with other countries banning it if not celebrate it. You have built a strawman. The "free speech" cohort is largely anti-banning. They want platforms like X, where anything goes, and are often quite militant abou…

I for one think both "social media is bad" and "free speech is important" which puts me in a real bind. Turns out when you let bad faith actors accumulate billions, the outcomes of the systems they create aren't always great.

Re: Nepal Bans 26 Social Media Platforms, Including Facebook and YouTube

#25

Post by monkaiju »

Fade_Dance wrote: post #20
whatsupdog wrote: post #16

Americans: social media is bad! It should be banned. Americans, after an Asian country does it: free speech!!!

It's almost like it's a country of 300 million people with a diverse set of views. The group that outright wants social media banned in the US, talks down Zuckerberg, etc, by and large will be perfectly fine with other countries banning it if not celebrate it. You have built a strawman. The "free speech" cohort is largely anti-banning. They want platforms like X, where anything goes, and are often quite militant abou…

If the latter were consistent it'd be much more interesting. X banned most large leftist accounts after Musk took over, so like most "free speech" advocates they really mean they want to be able to say hateful rightwing speech.

Re: Nepal Bans 26 Social Media Platforms, Including Facebook and YouTube

#27

Post by ffjffsfr »

People in the west are so used to freedom of speech and so focused on problems with social media. They miss the fact, that many authoritarian governments in Asia see freedom of speech in social media as a threat. They are not banning Facebook to improve quality of life, they want to limit freedom of speech.

Re: Nepal Bans 26 Social Media Platforms, Including Facebook and YouTube

#28

Post by ffjffsfr »

dyauspitr wrote: post #19
SilverElfin wrote: post #2

Sad to see anti free speech sentiments all over the world. It was constrained to only some areas but now it’s normalized even in places like the UK. I guess with all that’s happening, Nepal doesn’t surprise me.

Social media is cancer. Let’s go back to expressing free speech in the old fashioned way- at town squares and leaflets.

[flagged]

Re: Nepal Bans 26 Social Media Platforms, Including Facebook and YouTube

#29

Post by IAmGraydon »

ffjffsfr wrote: post #27

People in the west are so used to freedom of speech and so focused on problems with social media. They miss the fact, that many authoritarian governments in Asia see freedom of speech in social media as a threat. They are not banning Facebook to improve quality of life, they want to limit freedom of speech.

>They are not banning Facebook to improve quality of life, they want to limit freedom of speech.

Please post your evidence of this regarding Nepal. Also, are you suggesting that Nepal has an authoritarian government? Picking up a book may be helpful, as they literally abolished their authoritarian government in 1990 and their monarchy in 2008.

Re: Nepal Bans 26 Social Media Platforms, Including Facebook and YouTube

#30

Post by perching_aix »

ffjffsfr wrote: post #28
dyauspitr wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Social media is cancer. Let’s go back to expressing free speech in the old fashioned way- at town squares and leaflets.

[flagged]

So like when somebody insists on calling or meeting up, rather than texting or email? I know a lot of those.
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