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Nepal Bans 26 Social Media Platforms, Including Facebook and YouTube

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

#101

Post by em-bee »

arcanemachiner wrote: post #72
andai wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I heard TikTok has a Chinese version which promotes educational content, has time restrictions etc. The "export" version... not so much.

I have also heard (but never verified) this statement. Curious to know if it's true.

my general impression is that the greatest concern for china is people getting riled up about anything, and that leading to civil unrest. like what's happening in indonesia right now for example. therefore any kind of content that could get people upset is restricted. so effectively this means no doomscrolling. wechat has something that works like tiktok, and the content there is all positive, uplifting, educational or entertaining. probably just a addictive, mind you, but never once i have seen something that i would want to keep away from my kids.

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

#102

Post by busymom0 »

mschild wrote: post #11
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.

I'm conflicted. On the one hand, curtailing free speech is a problem and a lot of governments have started doing it to a massive degree. On the other hand, social networks are a cancer that are used to spread misinformation, steal information, and invade privacy like nothing else before. In that regard I do believe that banning them is a net benefit to society, but I fear that for the most part it is done out of the…

> On the other hand, social networks are a cancer that are used to spread misinformation, steal information, and invade privacy like nothing else before.

There're plenty of things far worse than social network which society has found to acceptable for many decades if not centuries. Things like alcohol, carbonated drinks, sugar etc are all consumed by people in whatever amount they want knowingly full well how much damage it might cause them. We don't need a few people baby-sitting our consumption of diet, be it food or information.

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

#103

Post by perching_aix »

DaSHacka wrote: post #98
_Algernon_ wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://xkcd.com/1357/

"Its free speech when I talk, but if you, someone who says things I disagree with talks, then you're merely an asshole being shown the door" I wonder what his opinion on pro-Palestinians getting banned on twitter is? Is it different then? What about the canning of Stephen Colbert? I love these smug posts about how "free speech as a concept only applies to the government censoring people" that were made a couple years…

> Turns out this free speech thing might be a pretty useful ability to have, huh?

> "Its free speech when I talk, but if you, someone who says things I disagree with talks, then you're merely an asshole being shown the door"

Did you mean to demonstrate this with that strawman of a quote? Not exactly a stellar display of free speech's utility and benefits I'd say. I'm sure you will also passionately go around telling everyone how you just got unfairly censored for it if you even manage to get it flagged. It's especially rich considering this started with the dude above pulling out the hivemind card, which is also notoriously useful and productive of course.

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

#104

Post by petralithic »

bigyabai wrote: post #51
petralithic wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, and it's shocking to see people cheer it on. An oft-heard refrain is about the legal right of the first amendment of the US constitution preventing the government from blocking speech, but that is based on the natural right of freedom of speech, as Hobbes and Locke would differentiate. Social media platforms are at such a scale in the modern day that they are essentially the public square, so the government bloc…

> Social media platforms are at such a scale in the modern day that they are essentially the public square This is a ridiculous assertion. The local Costco is "at such a scale in the modern day" that it, too, is essentially a public square. It's still private property, though. If you show up in Aisle 6 trying to convert people to Mormonism, a Costco employee will ask you to leave and stop harassing their customers. Y…

> The local Costco is "at such a scale in the modern day" that it, too, is essentially a public square.

But it's not at such a scale though. It does not have one location with billions of members.

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

#105

Post by nirava »

nutanc wrote: post #88

Other than the obvious discussions around free speech(very valid points), do we have any real studies on the actual effects of social media? What if social media platforms didn't exist. Would the world have been a better place? I don't know the answer, but atleast from my observations it feels as if almost every country in the world has moved to the right but by bit. We have moved away from globalization and are into…

In the specific context of Nepal, because it is clearly the next step in consolidation of power and move to authoritarianism.

The government is corrupt and has taken a lot of incredibly unpopular and objectively anti-people moves in the last 2-3 years. Taming social media would allow them to do more of that with less of the backlash.

It is clear they aren't even remotely concerned about the actual bad effects of social media. They didn't ban TikTok, of all things.

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

#106

Post by nirava »

xyzal wrote: post #37

This paragraph should be emphasized. > The government now requires platforms to register for a license and to appoint a representative who can address grievances. “We requested them to enlist with us five times. What to do when they don’t listen to us?” said Gajendra Kumar Thakur, a spokesman for the ministry. I wonder what were the platforms expecting, ignoring local government. You have to play by the rules society…

True, which is why I am somewhat conflicted.

So after sacking the wildly (and deservingly) popular Chairman of the National Electricity Authority, after allowing ministers to set arbitrary and uncapped salaries for themselves and their workers, after obstructing and undermining the wildly (and deservingly) popular mayor of the Capital, and after doing like 15 of these really major, objectively anti-nation things, and getting called out for it in Social Media by the commoners, the 73 year old Prime Minister (in many ways a Trump-like figure; immune to shame or criticism) moves to ban social media in the country. Obviously a bad thing.

At the same time, a 2 year old law that still hasn't convinced the companies with valuations higher than my countries GDP to throw like $10k to set up an office here and maintain it with less than $5k a month to keep their services running. It doesn't feel right to fight to keep them around either.

PS: The previous paragraphs might have portrayed the current government in a (deservingly) negative light. I wonder if I'll have to start browsing hackernews with a VPN in the future.

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

#107

Post by password54321 »

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.

These platforms themselves don't support free speech. On top of that everything is now heavily algorithmically driven. Everyone is pushed to consume the same type of content while thinking they have free will in their choice not realising they are being subtly manipulated right below their ability to recognise it.

At this point, YouTube probably has a better idea what you will consume next than you yourself do.

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

#108

Post by password54321 »

Finnucane wrote: post #14
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.

you don’t really need a lot of collusion. Control of the media and communication channels is a natural impulse of authoritarian goverments.

And who do you think is controlling most of these platforms?

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

#109

Post by bigyabai »

petralithic wrote: post #104
bigyabai wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Social media platforms are at such a scale in the modern day that they are essentially the public square This is a ridiculous assertion. The local Costco is "at such a scale in the modern day" that it, too, is essentially a public square. It's still private property, though. If you show up in Aisle 6 trying to convert people to Mormonism, a Costco employee will ask you to leave and stop harassing their customers. Y…

> The local Costco is "at such a scale in the modern day" that it, too, is essentially a public square. But it's not at such a scale though. It does not have one location with billions of members.

Okay, McDonalds then. "Billions served"

What gives you the right to leverage their private property as your soapbox? Because people on the sidewalk won't listen, and that hurts your feelings? They have a business, if you are using your speech in any way to obstruct the conduct of their thoroughfare then they can have you ejected. The cops will not listen to your tirade against multinational burger tyrants, they'll drop you off at the drunk tank. Your speech will never be unconditionally protected, not online or in real life.

As always, refer to the relevant XKCD: https://xkcd.com/1357/

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

#110

Post by realz »

nutanc wrote: post #88

Other than the obvious discussions around free speech(very valid points), do we have any real studies on the actual effects of social media? What if social media platforms didn't exist. Would the world have been a better place? I don't know the answer, but atleast from my observations it feels as if almost every country in the world has moved to the right but by bit. We have moved away from globalization and are into…

Social media algorithms are tuned to maximize engagements and this is easily done by keeping the user happy. This creates echo chambers and ends up polarizing users. Not everyone gets polarized but a vast majority of users become victims of confirmation bias, which leads to an increasingly fragmented and divisive society. Am I wrong?
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