TikTok Faces Ban in Nepal Over Concerns of Negative Social Impact

From the 13th of November 2023, TikTok, a commonly used video-sharing Chinese app, will be blocked in Nepal. Nepal’s cabinet ministers approved the ban on Wednesday. Nepal is a member of some countries including India, Canada, Australia, and France, among others have prohibited the app fully or part way.

The blocking of TikTok in Nepal has been attributed to its presumed corruptive effect on society. Freedom of expression may be considered as a fundamental human right yet, TikTok has been widely accused of failing to implement rigorous policies to control the circulation of hate speech. Just within the past four years, police officers have registered more than 1600 complaints concerning Tiktok-related cybercrime issues. A few days earlier, officials from Nepal’s Cyber Bureau also met some high-ranking officers from TikTok in an attempt to address this matter.

Nevertheless, this is not a new ban for TikTok in Nepal. For instance, it was prohibited at popular tourist spots as well as sacred Buddhist places, Ram Janaki Temple, and Gadhimai Temple on the last day of August 2022. It is important to first state that the initial limited restriction reflected increasing fears amongst officials regarding TikTok damaging Nepal’s culture and common traditions.

It shows that recent surveys have indicated that TikTok experienced rapid growth among the youths of Nepal. In a relatively short span, the proportion of internet users claiming they used TikTok increased from just 3% to more than 55%. Bored Nepali in lockdown during the pandemic is said to have contributed to the increase in popularity of this app in Nepal.

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Potential effects of TikTok ban in Nepal

Ban on TikTok can have both positive and negative impacts like:

Positive Impacts

• It assists in countering some cyber crimes like harassment, defamation, and privacy invasions connected with TikTok.
• Supports peace and balance within society by blocking influxes of prejudice-oriented speeches, misleading information, and divisive material.
• Stimulates progress in indigenous video sharing and development.
• Enables the government to deal with apprehensions regarding what is called ‘cyber-speech’.

Negative Impacts

• It curtails user’s free speech and creative liberty.
• The content creators, influencers, and companies that sell things on TikTok will suffer.
• It limits access to global cultures, trends, and exchanges.
• Striking a balance between social security and personal freedoms is difficult to achieve.
• This poses risks of suffocating creativity and limiting viewpoints.

Finally, governance should be a little bit organized without suppressing the citizens’ right to free speech.

Bans on TikTok in other countries

Besides Nepal, many other countries have varying levels of restrictions and bans on TikTok. This country has prohibited it entirely while some others have only banned a part of it. Below is the list of details of countries in this regard:

Full Ban on Tiktok

• Afghanistan: Nevertheless, in April last year when Talibans assumed power after the pull-out of the US army, TikTok was outlawed as Talibans believed that dirt was never part of Islam.
• India : India banned TikTok in 2020 along with fifty-eight other apps for reasons of state dignity, security, and stability.
• Somalia : TikTok and some other apps were prevented from posting content related to terrorism.
• Jordan : Jordan banned TikTok for a while during December 2022 and it is active up to now.                   

Partial Ban on TikTok

• Because of security concerns in Australia, federal officials are no longer allowed to use TikTok on national apparatus.
• Although some Canadians oppose it, the government of Canada has banned TikTok in government devices considering its implications for privacy and security.
• TikTok, being widely employed by employees, was subject to a ban on all official devices in Denmark because it presented the defense ministry with a security threat.
• In this light, the EU has forbidden the use of TikTok in-office computers and advised them to erase it from their mobile phones. Cybersecurity concerns have caused each of these countries to ban the app on government devices.
• Several restrictions for using TikTok continue to be imposed across the United States due to current national security issues. Currently, about thirty-four states have banned the usage of this application for their government devices.

Alternatives to TikTok

Any suggestions for alternatives to TikTok? Other good applications suitable for this genre can also be used by anybody.

• Snapchat is an obvious option. It gives more time of privacy because the videos vanish after some time. The video editor also allows you to add text, drawings, or GIFs to your videos. In addition, there is also a Discover section that allows one to view others’ content, original shows as well as their productions.
• Another equally strong option for powerful video editing is Funimate. All kinds of filters, effects, and templates are at your disposal when creating the videos. You simply need to prepare yourself for seeing some ads and some in-app purchases sneaking through.
• Instagram now allows users to string small clips and apply AR effects on its Reels service. Finding reels in the Instagram app is sometimes difficult, but is rapidly challenging TikTok as a competitor.
• Triller came into being in 2015, and that lets users create short video clips with music and other special effects like TikTok does.
• YouTube’s version of short-form video is YouTube Shorts. It is a good alternative if you are familiar with YouTube.
• From this perspective, huddle is directed towards group video-chatting and hence it’s excellent to chat with friends as well as make collaborating videos.

The trick, however, is discovering your personalized niche where everything falls into place. Give some of them a try if it makes sense and feel good in the process.