14 Killed in anti-government protests in Nepal

https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/world/massive-protests-in-nepal-over-social-media-ban/

by whatsupdog • 11 months ago

568 409 11 months ago

netsharc2• 11 months ago

So where's the donkey and where's the cart.

It reads like: citizens have been protesting the government using social media, government desperate to curb dissent bans social media, dissent is now on the streets..

Or maybe it's as straightforward as the media has been reporting.

paganel2• 11 months ago

It shows that the Nepalese have a higher civic response compared to many in the West, just look at the Brits, where in effect there is a social media ban on lots and lots of things that affect day-to-day life.

FirmwareBurner5• 11 months ago

Because people in the West have been indoctrinated to trust their governments far too much to an unhealthy degree to actually think that maybe their government doesn't have their best interest at heart and to start protesting.

And also because they're in the trap of a government provided cushy lifestyle which the government can terminate at will without violence (de-banking, de-pensioning, de-uneployment, de-social housing, etc) if they're caught protesting. People in underdeveloped countries don't have anything more to loose anyway but their chains.

jama2112• 11 months ago

Let’s not pretend the level of ban is equivalent, or the effect it has on people’s lives. More should be done, but there are levels of severity. UK citizens can and do still log on to many services daily that are not accessible in Nepal.

ta1243• 11 months ago

The only ban on media I've seen is from Farage, who's banned the media from covering local government where he has the power

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/reform-media-...

Trump has a similar playbook.

https://apnews.com/article/trump-ap-white-house-press-pool-b...

Then there's also the normal US style limits (fighting words are banned, speech which harms big companies is banned, "obscenity" is restricted or banned, death threats to the president are banned (the UK also bans threats to people who aren't the president)

MangoToupe3• 11 months ago

It also seems reasonable that companies have to follow local laws to operate there. Corporations superseding states seems just as dystopian as state repression of dissent. Granted, there is either confusion or misrepresentation as Mastodon is also banned.

The reporting seems pretty meagre; even strictly with these events, how are so many dying from batons and rubber bullets? Sure these can kill, but fourteen people?

netsharc2• 11 months ago

It's awkward isn't it, because following local laws could mean being a helping hand of the oppressor... For an extreme example, an email company that is forced by a new law to reveal all emails of citizens of country X, or a payment app that has to upload all transactions to the government (and where the supreme court has ruled in favour of the surveillance state). The "moral" company would probably rather shut their operations, but even trillion-dollar companies relent... And who has the last word on what's moral?

nirava5• 11 months ago

- Local law meant to censor heavily any dissent - several pro corruption measures passed in the last few years - the people have been angry for long - social media just meant people now have to come on the streets

lazily pasting one of my comments from yesterday

"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. "

marcosdumay3• 11 months ago

It also seems reasonable that companies have to follow local laws to operate there.

Yes. That's as reasonable as the people there protesting their own government.

seer• 11 months ago

Just a random tourist caught up in all of this in Nepal right now, but what I gathered was that corruption and anti-government sentiment was the reason, but the social networks ban tipped people over the edge to start protesting.

mothballed11• 11 months ago

Nepal government made the classic mistake of not realizing if you let people scream into the ether on whatever the youth use as twitter, they won't meet up with their friends to scream on the street or even worse.

ktallett• 11 months ago

These governments that block social media or control/monitor the internet to avoid critics of government or dissent, whether that be Nepal, Tunisia, Turkey, UK, Germany, China, Egypt, US, Russia, Israel, are always shocked when there is an uprising. Unsurprisingly when a government tries to control people this closely many will see the flaws in it and make a stand and rightly so whether that be digitally or in person. It's understandable why so many tech knowledgeable dissidents create or use apps that bypass ridiculous laws.

jay-barronville4• 11 months ago

These governments that block social media or control/monitor the internet to avoid critics of government or dissent, whether that be Nepal, Tunisia, Turkey, UK, Germany, China, Egypt, US, Russia, Israel, are always shocked when there is an uprising.

I beg to differ. I don’t think that any of these governments are shocked that the people eventually fight back. I think that they simply make the mistake of underestimating the power of the people (especially when united) and severely overestimating their ability to suppress the people and their dissent. That’s how tyranny works.

That said, freedom of speech is always worth fighting for! Once you lose your right to speak freely, it’s only a matter of time before you start to lose everything else.

CommenterPerson2• 11 months ago

India ?

perihelions2• 11 months ago

Hard-earned freedoms are wasted on societies who don't have memories of what it took to earn them. Freedom is a ratchet: slides easily and frictionlessly one way, and offers immense resistance in the other.

This is all so disheartening.

jay-barronville4• 11 months ago

Hard agree. I’m always trying to get my fellow young Americans to understand this and it seems to go right over their heads a lot of times. My parents lived through multiple oppressive dictatorships before emigrating to America. Once I understood everything that they and their families experienced (e.g., family members being kidnapped, disappeared, and eventually murdered simply due their political views), I gained a much deeper appreciation for our Constitution (in particular, our Bill of Rights).

Nowadays, watching how easy it is to get folks to give in to censorship and tyranny for psychological “safety” scares me sometimes (especially when it’s all due to politics).

No matter what someone’s views are (and how offensive I may find them to be), I’ll never ever advocate for their censorship, because I understand where that can lead. Today, it’s your opponent; tomorrow, it’s you.

whimsicalism6• 11 months ago

liberalism is passé nowadays, but it will see a resurgence akin to the “hard times make hard people, hard people make good times” cycle

SamoyedFurFluff3• 11 months ago

I actually don’t know if I agree with the last part. A chunk of the Rwandan genocide was a radio station instigating and advocating for the mass slaughter of a people. Atrocities in Myanmar also were originally advocated for in Facebook. On more personal levels, domestic abuse is also psychological torture and the wearing down of a person with words and it should be in someone’s right to file a restraining order to stop being contacted by their abuser even if the abuser doesn’t perform physical violence.

That is to say I broadly agree with the notion that speech should be relatively unfettered, but I do believe there must be exceptions for speech that actively aims to fetter people. We must limit speech that advocates limiting the freedoms of people to live as independent and equal citizens.

cedws• 11 months ago

I’m not aware of a single nation where the ratchet is loosening. It appears freedom is being eroded everywhere. The most disheartening thing is that nothing works to stop it. There are countries where millions of people have protested, but in time the protests always fizzle or are stamped out, and things continue on the same trajectory.

tomrod2• 11 months ago

I fear that your observations speaks more to protest being an inefficient catalyst for regime change more than it speaks to the efforts and initiatives to preserve freedom.

The jetset class doesn't really care about a single nation. For good (trade binds fractious governments) or ill (neofeudalism), they try to separate themselves from the proles.

mothballed11• 11 months ago

Protests are rarely effectual, they serve more to gauge interest of others and provide connections.

In the end the state is a force of violence. Voting works in so much as it is roughly a tally of who would win if we all pulled knives on each other. Democracy was formed at a time when guns and knives were the most effectual tools the state had to fight against the populace. Now that the government has more asymmetric tools democracy is likely a weaker gauge of how to avoid violence, because the most practical thing voting does is bypass violence by ascertaining ahead of time who would win in a fight.

As this asymmetry becomes more profound, the bargaining power of the populace erodes, and voting becomes more of a rigged game. If the populace can't check the power of the elite, the elite has no carrot to respect the human rights of others.

komali25• 11 months ago

We recently had a record-sized protest in Taiwan and major political movements as a result. The recall movement was also unprecedented, though it ostensibly failed. However the KMT has failed in its coupe so there's still a positive outcome.

It's why I'm here - it's one of the only countries on earth for which I'm politically optimistic.

pjmlp3• 11 months ago

As first generation out of Salazar's dictorship, our country now having a right majority with a Nazi party in the mix, makes me really sad.

How short the memory of folks can be, especially with my parents and grand parents generations still around, but apparently their memories and experiences now fall into death hears.

Maybe when they start getting visits from the eventually new state protection police, they will understand, then it will be too late.

martin-t9• 11 months ago

You can't make people care.

Not by telling them they should care. They have to experience. Unfortunately, with dictatorship, once you are experiencing it, it's already too late.

---

The reasons democracies slide towards less freedom is that in theory decisions should be made by people who care and are informed. But in reality, a single vote every few years is too imprecise to express any kind of informed opinion.

You pick and issue, do research and vote according to what's best for you and/or society. Except you can't vote on the issue. You vote for a party or candidate which also has stances towards dozens other issues. So even if you provide signal in one dimension, you provide only noise in others.

Voting for parties/candidates is like expressing your entire opinion, a multidimensional vector, by picking one point from a small number of predefined choices.

screye3• 11 months ago

I've found it to be the other war around.

Protests succeed, and they crown (usually conservative) authoritarians as the new king. Arab spring & Bangladesh are the 2 recent examples.

angelgonzales• 11 months ago

It might not be on the national level, but we’re fighting over here in California to maintain/take back our gun rights. A court recently ruled that the state cannot require a background check for ammunition, we also got rid of the one gun a month rule recently as well. This progress gives me hope we still have so much more work to do re. privacy, property rights and freedom of speech!

dennis_jeeves22• 11 months ago

The most disheartening thing is that nothing works to stop it.

Armed citizenry? I do not see any other way. Power always corrupts.

mothballed11• 11 months ago

I'm totally ignorant of the human right situation in nepal.

In the copy I found of their constitution, it only mentioned freedom of speech for the government. On their house floor.

What was it like there in recent times? Much state repression for political thought or unapproved opinions?

yieldcrv• 11 months ago

Always have to look deeper either way

The Chinese constitution guarantees free speech universally, another part of the constitution is used to control all facets of life in line with the state narrative, and that’s a charitable interpretation when we just pretend that the process of law matters at all, and distinguish when it is just procedural theatre or a real constraint on the state

Conflicting parts of constitutions can change everything

mytailorisrich• 11 months ago

A Constitution is just a piece of paper.

I think Westerners and perhaps especially Americans think it has intrinsic power because they have a strong rule of law and effective independent courts so they are used to their Constitution being well inforced.

However, in a country where this is not the case the Constitution is just a piece of paper...

KaiserPro• 11 months ago

are wasted on societies who don't have memories of what it took to earn them

I mean thats a bit rich given the massive civil war, dictatorship and overthrow of the monarchy that all happened within living memory.

SirHumphrey• 11 months ago

It's an overtly American perspective - perspective of a nation perpetually terrified of repeating the downfall of the Roman Republic.

In reality long periods of political instability make people quite happy to trade freedoms for peace.

whimsicalism6• 11 months ago

I am perfectly fine living in a society where you are not free to assault/storm government buildings and personally believe that the Jan 6th riots should have been met with more violent force than what occurred to protect the congressional proceedings.

andrepd• 11 months ago

Even the memories are no antidote. In the Philippines the memory of Marcos didn't stop autocrats from rising to power. Even in Europe, countries with relatively recent memories of autocracy and fascism, such as Portugal and Spain, have far-right parties with >20% seats in Parliament, just like in France or Germany.

What is to be done?

1234letshaveatw• 11 months ago

celebrate?

niteshpant2• 11 months ago

It is not a question of what, but a question of why.

Why do autocrats rise to power? Why are far-right parties rising in power in Germany, France, Spain and Portugal?

I've come to see this as a fundamental human nature one can't go against. Some people are, just evil. Humans will always love self more than others. This love of self can turn into a hatred of others, or easily be turned into a hatred of others.

Acceptance that evil forces and opportunitists and populists will always be around us is the first step in asnwering what is to be done

brazukadev• 11 months ago

What is disheartening? People fighting to keep using Facebook, Instagram? I think this looks more like brainwashing.

lionturtle• 11 months ago

It was absolutely not just social media ban, it was mostly youth protesting against the corrupt government and unfairness, social media ban was one element that was against the freedom of speech, but it was right around the time where everyone was documenting the rich politicians, their business connections and their families that have been living lavishly and just inheriting the election seats from generation to generation and spinning beurocracy to their sides.

I was there a few hours ago. It was a class struggle, but it was bound to be spun up as "kids don't get facebook and throw tantrum".

bhickey3• 11 months ago

The corruption is simply incredible. About fifteen years ago I found myself in Kathmandu after getting altitude sickness. The team's fixer brought me to lunch with some government officials. The topic of discussion? How to steal from a hydroelectric project. One of his guests outright asked, "should we be talking about this in front of this guy?" The fixer shrugged it off saying "he's a Westerner, what is he going to do about it?" And, well, he was right. It wasn't like I could go report it to the police.

Years later the fixer was finally jailed for gold smuggling. https://english.khabarhub.com/2022/16/232667/

Edit: add link

robertlagrant• 11 months ago

Just went to look you up on your profile to see why you might be hanging out with government officials, and just fyi your website link seems gone.

6LLvveMx2koXfwn• 11 months ago

re corruption:

I was flying from Kathmandu to Bangkok in 2000 and I couldn't book a ticket on the plane until the day it flew as 'half the plane' was reserved for 'Government Officials' 'just in case'. Amusingly they were all on one side of the plane too, the side that can see Mount Everest during the flight.

Quarrelsome15• 11 months ago

I think its quite something that we all waste our time over divisions like left/right, capitalism/socialism, woke/not-woke when in practice; this is the only division that matters. Those who are trying to follow the rules and make the nation better, and those that are only active for their self-interest.

mulakosag• 11 months ago

You don't know how incredible the corruption is. It goes from all levels. From president and prime minster to all the way down to a lowly clerk in your local government office. Nothing works without bribes. The big heads are raking out millions. I left the country only a few years ago. It is the sole reason I never want to be back there.

The desperation from the youth is so heart breaking when there is no jobs creation, no industry. Depending on their ability they go and work in middle east doing all those dangerous work in the desert heat. The country is empty of youth. If you go to the airport you will see thousands leaving the country each day. Coffins of workers who died in middle east.

The political parties? They are profiting for everything. In the last 10-15 years there were basically 3 guys who would become the prime minister in round robin always blame opposition when in government and always blame government when in opposition. Its like 1984 but without the surveillience but that also caught up with the ban of social media.

Yeul3• 11 months ago

The corruption is a cultural issue and each of those protesters would ask for bribes if they ever get into power.

rixed• 11 months ago

And they were discussing all this in English, or can you speak Nepali?

dncornholio• 11 months ago

Don't get too caught on this. Even if you were only protesting because of the social media ban, you'd still receive support. Don't worry about it.

JumpCrisscross22• 11 months ago

Would recommend enrolling in STEP [1] as a precaution (assuming you’re American).

[1] https://mytravel.state.gov/s/step

factorialboy2• 11 months ago

Classic color revolution — China and India will be watching intently.

alephnerd7• 11 months ago

China and India are meddling in this. Nothing in Nepali politics happens without either China or India's hands or implicit blessing. Heck, regional Nepali politicans will literally vie for Nitish Kumar or Lalu Prasad Yadav's (the two perpetual CMs of Bihar) backing.

Even the Armed Forces(pro-India) and the Armed Police Force (pro-China) are at each others throats.

Whenever India feels Nepal is getting too close to China, a crisis happens. When China feels Nepal is getting to close to India, a crisis happens as well.

It's like how Iraqi and Lebanese politics is always meddled in by Saudi and Iran.

Also, the social media ban is extremely damaging.

Most students use Google and YouTube to study, and WhatsApp is heavily used by Nepalis both domestically and abroad (a large portion of Nepalis work abroad in India, the Gulf, Singapore, South Korea, Malaysia, and Japan as migrant workers) so people are cut off from communicating with each other and getting job offers.

hopelite2• 11 months ago

It very much sounds like it; "grooming" and instrumentalizing the local younger generation's innate and legitimate frustrations for western (read: Israeli, British, and US "intelligence" cabal clowns) interests to foment instability and/or installing a more usable and pliable government. It smells of not only every moralizing "color revolution", but it is also an on-the-nose wedge between China and India (read: BRICS) called Nepal, if you look at the map.

The recent appearance of William van Wagenen on the Scott Horton Show was rather eye opening to me on some matters, even though I have been very well aware of these types of operations for many years now. For example, the "Arab Spring" that most people at the time thought was an organic citizen protest/uprising, but was clearly a clown cabal operation, has even deeper roots with position papers for many years prior clearly outlining the exact progression for how things would end up unfolding during the "Arab Spring".

It's definitely worth a listen, even if it may sound bewildering to people who have no real context for that world outside of the mainstream.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJa1sbAqylE

throwawayq342310• 11 months ago

Classic removal of agency from real revolutions to avoid thinking critically about the real problems a country has, and instead blame a foreign boogeyman.

A favorite tactic of authoritarian regimes and the tankies that love them.

nirava5• 11 months ago

agreed. you don't kill 19 kids protesting social media ban. it goes far far far deeper than that.

hliyan2• 11 months ago

Reminscient of Sri Lanka in 2022 (I was there). The lack of petrol and powercuts were the straw that broke the back of a camel that had been overburdend for several decades. Foreign "experts" and "analysts" trying to make sense of these events often sound either hilarious or condescending to locals who are living through them.

graemep5• 11 months ago

I was thinking exactly the same. I was not there at the time, but I have family there and have lived there.

It was amazing how many people who were not usually politically active joined the protests, and that they attracted support across racial divisions.

I think one of the problem with outside experts is that they try to reframe it in terms of the issues in their countries. For example, I have read articles trying to use Sri Lanka's excessive borrowing as a warning against modern monetary theory, which is either dishonest or incompetent - and I very much doubt the govt were even thinking in terms of MMT.

BTW I have probably met you at some point. I know Gehan from when i worked at Millennium (I was only there about an year).

mandeepj3• 11 months ago

Quite similar corruption is happening here in America! Donald trump made over $3.8B since getting into office this year, while tanking farming, jobs market, and foreign relations.

barbazoo3• 11 months ago

That number can’t be right, must not be right, do you have a source for that?

jimbohn• 11 months ago

Feels like we are watching a poor man's caligola

account42• 11 months ago

Unlike those that came before him of course, who are just regular folk like us making ends meet.

nomdep2• 11 months ago

He made that with the business he already had and some legal cryptocurrency investment based on capitalizing his fame.

How on earth you call that "corruption"?

Are you even aware of what the word means?

sentinelsignal3• 11 months ago

Has the country always been this corrupt? Has the corruption progressively risen or was it a drastic change? to openly plot is wild imo.

hopelite2• 11 months ago

The open plotting happens in western countries too, my friend. I have personally been witness to it. The irony is that the same reasons that were give for not "reporting" things is also similar to why things in the west are not "reported", albeit due to far more sophisticated and complicated reasons. Must I remind you of all the examples of "whistleblowers" who were not protected, not lauded and championed, sometimes not even respected by the public they were acting in the name of. I have personal knowledge of very similar types of circumstances where people have "whistleblown" and at best, as Snowden back then indicated, even the most gross violations simply just fall on "def" ears, which is more like simply inaction; with you only having identified yourself as someone moral or principled in a system that is inherently immoral and unprincipled.

Just take a look at the whole Epstein files situation. Not to be too acute about it, but how is it wild to you that plotting would happen in the "third world" when it happens right in your face in the heart of the world empire, openly defying all of the most core Constitutionally enshrined principles, and even daring you to do something about it and also proving how powerless you/everyone is to even look the cabal that control the world in the eyes, let alone depose them.

just-another-se• 11 months ago

Fellow Nepali here. Corruption has always been blatant in Nepal, but in the past it was mostly limited to the monarchs and a small circle around them. With democracy, however, it feels like everyone in power has become corrupt. It’s reached a point where corruption is so normalized that people compare leaders based on the degree of their corruption, rather than whether they are corrupt at all. On top of that, the children of these politicians and officials openly flaunt their Gucci, LV, and Ferraris on social media—in a country where just one of their bags costs more than what an average Nepali earns in a whole year.

rayiner• 11 months ago

Youths overthrew the government in Bangladesh last year based on similar outrage circulating on social networks. And what happened? The interim government banned the political activities of the only party that's won an election in recent memory: https://www.doughtystreet.co.uk/news/bangladesh-ban-awami-le.... Meanwhile, the Islamist parties have been un-banned and are resurgent: https://thediplomat.com/2025/08/resurgence-of-jamaat-e-islam...; https://eastasiaforum.org/2025/04/07/political-islam-could-f.... Youths are fucking dumb.

As George Washington said in Hamilton: "Ah, winning was easy, young man. Governing's harder."

brightball2• 11 months ago

People go out of their way to control information.

Michael Shellenberger's site was blocked in Europe by the European Parliament after posting information for "The Twitter Files - France" which he's schedule to be testifying about to the House Foreign Affairs committee tomorrow.

https://x.com/shellenberger/status/1963951509928079384

whimsicalism6• 11 months ago

to be extremely clear - it was blocked in the European Parliament network, not all of Europe by the EP

hulitu• 11 months ago

It was absolutely not just social media ban, it was mostly youth protesting against the corrupt government and unfairness, social media ban was one element that was against the freedom of speech, but it was right around the time where everyone was documenting the rich politicians, their business connections and their families that have been living lavishly and just inheriting the election seats from generation to generation and spinning beurocracy to their sides.

You just gave a definition of "democracy". Thank you. /s

thisislife2• 11 months ago

"kids don't get facebook and throw tantrum".

But you cannot ignore that aspect - addicts do get aggressive, even violent, when they don't get their fix. So they are indeed vulnerable and politically susceptible.

SLWW3• 11 months ago

Young people also like to see if there is a way to have a better world, old people tend to keep the status quo.

While I'm sure the connection to technology and the Internet as a whole plays a role, but much more-so the gross and clearly corrupt government is the reason why they demonstrated.

No one is willing to die so they can just post on social media.

Nasrudith2• 11 months ago

Nice Kafkatrap you have there. Getting upset about losing something means that you are an addict.

drmacak• 11 months ago

Maybe what is even worse in a way, is the state of many developed countries where all the coruption is well documented in media, everyone knows what is going on and yet it does not really move people. I guess until you are in "good enough" state you are not forced to really fight.

mcny2• 11 months ago

What's missing in this discussion is the infiltration by agitating forces trying to muddy the waters. There are the regressive forces trying to bring back the monarchy which can't be good for anyone.

No kings.

checker6592• 11 months ago

Kids died today. Not jholays.

JKCalhoun• 11 months ago

Had to "phone a friend" on that one:

"In Nepal, “jhola” (bag) turned into “jholay” is slang. It usually refers to people—often students, activists, or intellectual types—who carry a cloth bag (jhola) and are associated with being overly “bookish,” pseudo-intellectual, leftist, or idealistic. Depending on tone, it can be affectionate, neutral, or dismissive (like calling someone a “hippie” or “armchair intellectual” in English)."

EDIT: sounds like "my friend" is hallucinating. Thanks, actual people for helping me understand jholay. It seemed lazy though to simply ask in the comments, "What's jholay?"

pwndByDeath• 11 months ago

I wish my government would ban those attention traps too... Or perhaps less hyperbolicly, I wish people wouldn't use those platforms for their valuable free speech, and perhaps save their words for only the most valuable of utterances. But then they would all be here on HN. ;)

CommenterPerson2• 11 months ago

A ban would be a terrible idea. Some appropriate regulation and breaking up of monopolies might improve the situation. It's heartening to see the EU initiatives.

asib• 11 months ago

The demonstration turned violent when some protesters entered the Parliament complex, prompting police to resort to baton charges, tear gas shells and rubber bullets to disperse the crowd, eyewitnesses said.

14 people dead from so-called "non-lethal" means. How do 14 people end up dead without the police coming with intent to do harm?

bjackman• 11 months ago

Also note the phrasing. The content is "the police killed 14 people". But the form is "the situation turned violent as a result of the protester's actions".

ddtaylor2• 11 months ago

"See what you made me do" is a common phrase in domestic abuse.

whatsupdog2• 11 months ago

I mean, what what do you do to protect the parliamentarians from blood thirsty crowds. Which side were you on during the January 6 riots/protests?

wtcactus2• 11 months ago

Isn’t this very similar to what protestors did on the January 6th incident in the USA?

ivanjermakov• 11 months ago

Totalitarian states love this trick of putting provocators into the crowd to later blame civil protesters for violence/crime.

ycombinete• 11 months ago

The correct term for these means is "less-lethal".

mananaysiempre• 11 months ago

Also, it’s literally a war crime to use tear gas on the battlefield, yet it’s somehow OK to use it on civilians. (I understand part of the reason is to prevent a slippery slope from tear gas to chlorine, but it’s still telling.)

nirava5• 11 months ago

19 people so far. mostly peaceful protestors shot. 80+ being treated, ~50 serious. It was "Gen Z" kids raising one-piece flags among other things.

some killed were still in their school uniforms, at least one was 16.

whimsicalism6• 11 months ago

i mean it’s certainly possible with crowds, police have been implicated in causing crowd crush incidents with 5x death count compared to this

thinkingtoilet• 11 months ago

Rubber bullets have been shown time and time again to be lethal. Just because they don't kill you every time doesn't mean they aren't lethal. You can survive a gun shot too. Immense shame should be poured on every media outlet that licks the boot of authoritarians when they repeat this lie.

estebarb• 11 months ago

I'm afraid that website was hacked. It only redirects me to fraudulent raffles and casino stuff such as https://cdn.aucey.com/sweeps-survey/1034/es.html

didntcheck• 11 months ago

Same experience here. Their ads repeatedly hijack the tab

Try this instead https://archive.is/zv17z . Not perfect, but the text can still be read behind the popover

trashburger• 11 months ago

Check your browser/OS, works fine here.

Pikamander2• 11 months ago

Rogue browser extensions are very rare these days. When people get redirected to malicious sites, it's almost always either due to the site having an infected WordPress installation or using a sketchy ad network.

Aeolun• 11 months ago

They need the military to deal with the teenagers? I guess if all you have is a hammer…

seydor• 11 months ago

Kinda like what the US does

throwawayq342310• 11 months ago

The U.S. sends its military to kill teenagers?

beardyw• 11 months ago

The prime minister said the party is not against social media, “but what cannot be accepted is those doing business in Nepal, making money, and yet not complying with the law”.

I accept that there is corruption and manipulation by the government, but experience tells us also that these companies may be avoiding taxes towards zero.

alephnerd7• 11 months ago

They have all registered with Nepal's revenue office and are paying VAT [0]

The issue is the government in Nepal wants every social media holding company to have a designated person in Nepal who they can directly communicate with for takedowns without going through the traditional process, and if the company does not flllow through, hold that person legally liable.

It's a blatant censorship ploy because protests and dissatisfaction against the KP Sharma Oli, Sher Bahadur Deuba, and Prachanda musical chairs along with various constant corruption scandals are pushing Nepalis to ask for an alternative.

[0] https://ekantipur.com/business/2025/01/28/en/from-google-met...

wtcactus2• 11 months ago

So, very similar to what happened with X in Brazil.

baggachipz• 11 months ago

Ah, so they did the right thing for the (very) wrong reasons. Shame.

whimsicalism6• 11 months ago

i’m pretty sure that’s a standard requirement.. or at least extremely similar to how Brazil does it and i think similar for lots of EU countries

jacknews2• 11 months ago

Today is UNESCO's International Literacy Day, and this year's theme is digital literacy.

Quite ironic to choose this day to start trying to make an entire nation digitally illiterate.

newyankee• 11 months ago

Might be the wrong reasons, but highly skewed and externally controlled social media do not necessarily mean bastions of free speech, they have shown that powerful group with right incentives and structures can capture and influence perception. Everyone has biases and social media will reinforce or amplify them if an external adversary uses in a targeted way.

Also while free speech and protests are important, the nature of protests or certain elements fuelling fire in the resentment can lead to these becoming completely out of control and destroying property or harming passersby. Sometimes pure anarchy is the goal of routine rabble rousers who use this opportunity. So I will go out on a limb over here and say no one over here really knows what happened in the sequence of decision making by the police and there may be some instances where certain actions may have been justified to avoid further escalation.

jacknews2• 11 months ago

education education education

happyweasel• 11 months ago

Oh, let me guess... The protests were organized by groups that get their funding from the NED or other Western sponsored NGOs ? (Asking for a friend)

JumpCrisscross22• 11 months ago

No evidence of any of that. I don’t see how it’s incredible to believe students will flip out if you ban social media.

(Though the meme of all protests and civil discontent in Asia being the product of Western influence is a popular one among right-wing circles.)

zahlman2• 11 months ago

the meme of all protests and civil discontent in Asia being the product of Western influence is a popular one among right-wing circles

I listen to enough "right-wing circles" to end up getting people tarnishing me as one just for standing up for them (despite all kinds of progressive views) and I frankly don't know what you're talking about. My friends that tend to get interpreted as "right-coded" have historically been supportive of protest movements in Taiwan and Hong Kong.

n3storm• 11 months ago

Negatives here we come: How can this post get to HN front-page and not any USAn turmoil, Gaza or Argentina libertarian downfall news?

JumpCrisscross22• 11 months ago

This is novel. I didn’t know this was happening and am learning a lot from informed comments. That…doesn’t tend to describe those other topics’ discourse.

cbHXBY1D• 11 months ago

I think it is a fair question: why is this allowed to stay on the front page while the deaths of people in Gaza is not? Israel just killed a bunch of journalists for organizations like the Associated Press in a double tap strike on a hospital and we're not allowed to discuss it?

objektif2• 11 months ago

I hope beautiful people of Nepal finally take down the corrupt scum that has been holding their country back for generations.

maxlin• 11 months ago

https://archive.is/zv17z

(reposting as a top level comment, thanks to original poster)

screye3• 11 months ago

Nepal is an interesting nation.

Compared to nearby poor nations, Nepal is safe and its people are perceived to be welcoming. It's the only serious candidate for being a ski-nation in all of mainland Asia. If Nepal wanted, it could transform itself into a Bali style tourist destination and ascend towards being a middle economy. Unlike India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, which have to solve 1-billion-people scale problems, at 30 million, Nepal can resort to scaled down solutions.

Nepal's refusal to leverage the (few) advantages of its geography is baffling.

The internal politics are even more bizarre. As a communist-adjacent nation, it has a closed off economy with deep suspicion towards free markets. Yet, the national messaging alternates between blaming India or China for all their problems. The local populace (like every populace) eats this up. From my observations, neither nation affects Nepal's economics much. (national security is a separate conversation)

protests reflect young people's widespread frustration with government action to tackle corruption and boost economic opportunities.

South Asia is coming off a recent protest->overthrow movement in Bangladesh. The youth protesters had similar complaints. Yet, the outcome was an even less democratic system which now owed favors to the violent parts of the society that helped complete the ouster. Similarly, Nepal has a history of political instability and violent ousters, most of which had led of very little economic change.

The youth's complaints are valid and I support their protests. However, do the protesters have an outcome in mind ? They want an improved economy. But, will they be okay with opening Nepal up to free markets ? This may mean selling resort building contracts to major western ski companies. It may mean opening unsafe sweatshops for Adidas to make shoes there. It may mean resource exploration by foreign mining companies.

I say this, because this is a South Asian disease. We want our nations to have a strong economy. But, economic liberalization can sometimes look like colonization, and this hurts the ego of proud global-south nations. We want progress, while keeping all foreign influence at bay. We want social welfare, but the nation is bankrupt. It's paradoxical. When our nations do move towards markets, it happens at gunpoint (1991) or with steep political costs (Farm Bill, GST) to the the incumbent.

Not sure what the solution is here. But, the last decade has made me suspicious towards protest movements that do not have positive policy outcomes in mind. The student's anger is valid, but impressionable students are the the time-honored vanguard used by more powerful opposition to trigger coups.

zahlman2• 11 months ago

But, economic liberalization can sometimes look like colonization, and this hurts the ego of proud global-south nations.

As an aside, this categorization (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_North_and_Global_South) has always seemed problematic to me.

The Global South classification, as used by governmental and developmental organizations, was first introduced as a more open and value-free alternative to Third World,[6] and likewise potentially "valuing" terms such as developed and developing.

But I don't think it's "more open and value-free" at all. The rhetoric around it always seems to be alluding vaguely to racist and/or colonialist causes of the economic disparities; but labeling the disadvantaged places as "South" reinforces that colonialist view (cf. maps presented upside-down to avoid supposed biases), and also brings in connotations of specifically American political history (Union vs Confederacy kinda stuff, you know).

Excluding Australia and New Zealand also seems intellectually dishonest. If places like Moldova are "North" because of the physical reality rather than than economics, than Australia and New Zealand (which also were colonized) should be "South" (just as the wealthier parts of the Middle East are). The border isn't anything like straight, either.

If we want to highlight a problem with economic disparity, we should not turn up our noses at terms that are fundamentally about the economic disparity.

screye3• 11 months ago

It's called the global south because it is poor. These terms (3rd world, developing world) are associated with poverty because they are a cluster of poor nations. The countries are poor because they're badly run. Their institutions are corrupt. Their population is under-educated and under-productive.

It can't value free, because there will always be a value judgement here.

It hurts. Yes, colonialism and a history of foreign exploitation has meant that global south nations have been dealt worse cards. But, the present is what it is. I'm sick of poor nations (like my own) feeding their delusions about the current state of their nation. The people have to learn to separate their identity as proud successors of a rich historic culture and their current state of disrepair. The inability to do so, keeps us poor and susceptible to further exploitation by local power brokers.

Just because twitter influencers use more offensive terms for these nations, doesn't mean that civil forums should overcompensate with euphemisms that hides the obvious judgement inherent to such groupings.

kylehotchkiss• 11 months ago

It's the only serious candidate for being a ski-nation in all of mainland Asia

Indian Himalayas have ski resorts.

If Nepal wanted, it could transform itself into a Bali style tourist destination and ascend towards being a middle economy.

Landlocked country with little natural resources. Who's funding this project? Watch a YouTube about the Kathmandu-Pokhara road. Infrastructure is not easy there.

Nepal's refusal to leverage the (few) advantages of its geography is baffling.

They grow rice on hills, have a thriving mountaineering ecosystem, and build dense cities in the valleys large enough to support them. How are they not leveraging them?

As a communist-adjacent nation, it has a closed off economy with deep suspicion towards free markets.

The county to their south went this way after the Raj, for what I believe are fair reasons. I can see how that influenced Nepal's hesitancy to open up more to international brands.

Yet, the national messaging alternates between blaming India or China for all their problems.

They aren't wrong! India had "interstate entry taxes" up until 2017 - taxes that cargo had to pay in each state on the way to the ports. It wasn't even the just the national governments making life harder to Nepali, it was individual states!

However, do the protesters have an outcome in mind

Their anger is justification enough. It's tough for college graduates in the region to find a career that matches their education level.

But, will they be okay with opening Nepal up to free markets?

Nepal isn't as closed to free markets as you keep insinuating. There are malls with Asian brands where people can go shop. Not having as many American brands makes sense given the logistics problems. There are western restaurants. There are western hotel brands. There are Indian hotel brands.

This may mean selling resort building contracts to major western ski companies.

Taj, Oberoi, Leela (Indian resort brands) could probably build a wonderful one. And they haven't, I presume they have the numbers demonstrating this doesn't work economically.

It may mean opening unsafe sweatshops for Adidas to make shoes there.

There's no world where that makes sense economically. See my note about India previous state tariffs/state taxes. Just presume there's all sorts of hidden middlemen between KTM and ports.

It may mean resource exploration by foreign mining companies.

China would be there already if it was viable (read more about the few roads north to China)

with steep political costs (Farm Bill, GST) to the the incumbent.

Your wording makes me think you are Indian. If I'm correct, The best thing you can do is encourage more Indians to go enjoy what Nepal has to offer now, so they can afford to invest in some of the improvements you propose :)

keybored7• 10 months ago

To the Western-minded or the Third World-elite the exploitation of the Global South is just the trivial past, tut-tut, nevermind those centuries—what is happening now, and only domestically and narrowly “corruption” (of course prominently featured on this submission) is what matters.

Even in the case when the exploitation never ended.

josfredo• 11 months ago

It is hard not to use social medias in this age, and the citizens have the right to fight for them, even if it resolves in their deaths.

As with pouring water, the world keeps spinning, and the strife goes on.

haleem123• 11 months ago

Seems like a chapter out of the recent Sarah Wynn-Williams book

Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism Hardcover

https://www.amazon.com/Careless-People-Cautionary-Power-Idea...

rpac0• 11 months ago

Every major global news outlet is portraying Nepal’s protest as being against a “social media ban.” That is misleading. Even most large local media houses are pushing the same narrative—which is not surprising, since many of them serve as PRs agents for political parties.

A bit about Nepal—the government here is run by a bunch of old farts. They are deeply corrupt and will do anything, legal or not, to protect their positions and continue embezzling the national budget. They lack accountability because they know they can/and have gotten away with anything. Example of a recent one [1]. Their children live lavishly, flexing their designer bags and watches, while the commoners struggle working tough jobs overseas just to survive.

They know that by controlling social media—as they already did with TikTok—they can censor any news about their corruption (which is a norm here) easily and keep the people in dark and in their favor. Now, they want Meta and Google to comply with their agenda and with the election coming, they need this bad!

This protest was never about a “social media ban.” It was against years and years of corruption, embezzlement and censorship. It was supposed to be peaceful. But politics here is a dirty game, and these veterans are seasoned pros. They hired goons to infiltrate the peaceful crowds, cause chaos and damage public property—a very old tactic here. That is how the demonstration spiraled out of control.

If you want to hear the voices of real people, look at r/Nepal and r/NepalSocial on Reddit.

And ask yourself—do you really think people are ready to risk their lives just for social media?

[1] https://old.reddit.com/r/NepalSocial/comments/1n9ra2q/hit_an...

njsubedi• 11 months ago

The count is 19. And it's mostly students, few of who were still in their school uniform. Many head injuries, and death by bullets on the head. This is the darkest day in Nepal!

Edit: And the protest was against corrupt politicians, not social media ban.

nirava5• 11 months ago

The count's gone up. I didn't go to the protest but the friends that went say they're probably under-counting considering how many shots were fired right in front of them.

PS fancy seeing you here!

bbminner• 11 months ago

In the meantime, Russia erected a copy of the great Chinese firewall with DPI and everything - blocking YouTube, foreign news, most voice chat apps, most vpn traffic, and even actively dropping ssh connections when too much bidirectional sustained traffic is being detected.

allfornepal• 11 months ago

Pretty sure this number will increase to lot more in coming days, terrible to see this state of a beautiful country.

kelvinjps10• 11 months ago

I remember people here in a previous thread saying that the people supported the ban, well it doesn't seem like it's the case

nirava5• 11 months ago

supporters of the ban in 3 camps:

- "if social media won't follow our laws, we should ban them" - "I am affiliated to this party so this is ok" - "social media bad, hence ban good"

of course the deeper issue was that the social media was banned because it helped backlash against the powerful spread. and backlash mostly well-deserved because of the objectively pro-corruption anti-press anti-people laws being proposed and passed.

In many ways, this protest and this massacre was probably step n and n+1 in the process rather than an accident:

nemo44x• 11 months ago

Imagine dying because you can’t post on Facebook so you rioted and vandalized government buildings.

aavshr• 11 months ago

Please make yourself aware of all the facts before posting ignorant comments like this. Children died, shot while protesting against blatant corruption and lack of accountability that's going on for decades. The social media ban was just the final straw.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/9/8/six-killed-in-nepal-...

topsykreet• 11 months ago

https://drive.google.com/drive/mobile/folders/18lJGrc5TSlsch...

Here's the drive link from the protest, recorded on camera.

Fricken• 11 months ago

[flagged]

fluoridation• 11 months ago

Why are you dancing around the issue instead of answering the question? What was the point of making that comment? "Giving a history lesson" is simply bullshit. If you want to say that you're pro-censorship then just say it.

abdullahkhalids• 11 months ago

While I sympathize with your viewpoint, your language is far outside HN's guidelines and I am going to flag your comment.

tomhow• 11 months ago

Do you have anything to say or did god put you here to be a dink?

You can't comment like this on HN, no matter how right you are or feel you are. The comment would have been fine without that line.

We detached this comment from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45173338 and marked it off topic.

zippo_the_zippo• 11 months ago

Many news articles have failed to mention that the social media ban in Nepal was a direct response to a viral "nepo-baby vs. regular youth" online campaign, which ultimately backfired.

https://www.timesnownews.com/viral/why-nepo-kid-campaign-is-...

The government framed the ban as a measure against "unregistered social media" platforms. However, major companies like Facebook and YouTube have been registered and paying taxes for years. These companies did not agree to the government's overly controlling bill, which had not even been passed into law. The K.P. Oli government attempted to bypass a public vote and enforce it as a directive, threatening non-compliant apps with bans.

https://www.law-democracy.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Nep...

14 Killed in anti-government protests in Nepal

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