Nepal Government has written to Nepal Telecommunication Authority (NTA) to shut down social media platforms today. The government decided to shut down the social media platforms including Facebook, YouTube and Twitter today (September 4). The meeting held among officials at Ministry of Communication and Information Technology decided to ban the operation of these platforms citing their failure to get registered in Nepal as per government’s ultimatum. On August 27, the government had issued a seven-day ultimatum to the social media to register in Nepal. According to the notice, each platform must designate a point of contact, a Resident Grievance Handling Officer and a Monitoring officer to ensure compliance with self-regulation. The seven-day ultimatum expired yesterday (September 3). The notice published on MOCIT’s official website states that the decision has been made following the Cabinet decision on August 25. The cabinet meeting made this decision on the basis of the Supreme Court’s order. The order states that all online and social media platforms must mandatorily registered for operation in Nepal. The government had been repeatedly issuing threats to the social media platforms to register in Nepal for smooth operation. This time it has officially written to the NTA to deactivate the social networks. The notice further states that the ban will be released as soon as these platforms will register. Till date, social media platforms- TikTok, Viber, Nimbuzz, WeTalk and Poppolive have officially registered in Nepal and Telegram and Global Diary are in process of registration. NTA has published a list of 26 platforms which will be blocked following the ministry's directive order. The platforms are:- Facebook, Facebook Messenger, Instagram, YouTube, WhatsApp, X, LinkedIn, Snapchat, Reddit, Discord, Pinterest, Signal, Threads, WeChat, Quora, Tumblr, Clubhouse, Mastodon, Rumble, MeWe, VK, Line, IMO, Zalo, Soul, and Hamro Patro. According to the Spokesperson for MOCIT Nepal, Gajendra Thakur, two platforms Hamro Patro and X (Twitter) officially contacted the ministry to initiate registration process on September 5. Freedom Forum is seriously concerned over the action of the government. FF Executive Chief Taranath Dahal comments, "Social media platforms have become an efficient, instant mode of communication and an open place for democratic discourse. The government’s authoritarian move to ban these platforms is a strict violation of citizen’s right to free expression and access to information." "This decision is not based on any law. Existing laws in Nepal do not require social media platforms or internet applications to be registered", he emphasized. For more, Freedom Forum monitoring@freedomforum.org.np (This page was last updated on September 6, 2025.)
Nepal government decides to shut down two dozen social media
