New Delhi, September 4, 2025– The Committee to Protect Reporters alerts that the Nepali government’s decision to obstruct accessibility to social media sites systems throughout the country will seriously hinder reporters’ job and individuals’s access to news and details.
“Nepal’s sweeping restriction on social media establishes an unsafe criterion for press freedom,” claimed CPJ Regional Supervisor Beh Lih Yi. “Blocking online information platforms vital to reporters will threaten reporting and the general public’s right to info. The government must immediately retract this order and bring back access to social media sites platforms, which are crucial devices for exercising press freedom.”
On Thursday, Nepal’s Ministry of Communication and Infotech directed the Nepal Telecom Authority to immediately close down access to systems that had stopped working to follow an August 25 Cupboard instruction needing foreign social media sites and on-line streaming platforms to register within 7 days.
The Supreme Court also ruled on August 17 that on the internet systems should be signed up before operating in Nepal, so as to keep track of misinformation.
Systems’ net access might be restored gradually if they initiate the registration process, according to a duplicate of the ministry’s September 4 regulation , examined by CPJ.
The Japanese-owned app Viber and Chinese-owned TikTok have actually registered, while a lot of significant Western platforms including Facebook, YouTube, and X have not, information reports stated.
Interaction Ministry Assistant Radhika Aryal did not quickly respond to CPJ’s emailed ask for comment. However, in an meeting with the news website Corporate Nepal, she said that Meta, the moms and dad firm of Facebook and Instagram, had actually consistently refused government requests to register.
Meta, X, and Google, which possesses YouTube, did not quickly reply to CPJ’s emailed requests for remark.