Youth seethe at overnight social media ban in Nepal

With access to 26 major platforms cut off overnight, thousands of young Nepalis across the country have called for a protest Monday against what they said was a “digitally repressive” move by the government in Kathmandu. Demonstrations are expected to begin at 9am, with organisers calling the blackout a “direct assault on speech, work and connectivity”.

Many users, particularly in urban areas, scrambled for VPNs — virtual private networks that became lifelines to a world that had abruptly become inaccessible. By midday, Google Trends showed searches for “VPN for Nepal” had surged by more than 400% overnight. Proxy browsers, DNS tweaks and foreign eSIMs also became part of the workaround toolkit. Nepal Police’s cyberbureau issued warnings about using unverified VPNs, flagging the risks of malware, fraud, and phishing.


Still, these tools remained out of reach for many — particularly older users, rural students and small businesses.

Ayoung protest organiser, speaking on TikTok (the only popular platform that is still accessible), urged, “Gen Z is waking up — protests must bring our voice to the streets if social media silences us.” Organising committees across Kathmandu and Pokhara are now coordinating location details offline.

The sweeping ban was enforced in the hours before dawn on Friday. One by one, familiar platforms flickered to darkness — not through technical failure, but by force of a govt order acting on a Supreme Court directive. Facebook stopped loading. WhatsApp messages hung on single ticks. YouTube videos would not play.

The ban targeted companies that had failed to register with local authorities. “Unregistered social media platforms will be deactivated today (Friday) onwards,” said Gajendra Kumar Thakur, spokesperson, ministry of communication and information technology.

Communications minister Prithvi Subba Gurung said platforms were given multiple opportunities to comply, and once they failed to do so, action followed.

The blackout fractured routines across education, tourism, recruitment and commerce. Messaging failed. Online meetings stopped. Freelancers lost access to clients. Small businesses in Kathmandu were among the first to feel the pinch.
Dipa Gurung, 28, who runs a jewellery business from home, said nearly all her trade occurred through Facebook and Instagram. “I never needed a shop. My livelihood lived in chats and comments. Now, I can’t even reply to regular customers,” she said.

In Pokhara, guesthouse manager Rita Rai said most of her guest communication happened on WhatsApp. “A couple from Mumbai couldn’t find our place. They wandered for over an hour before someone helped them.”

For students, especially in technical fields, platforms like YouTube and Reddit had long filled learning gaps left by outdated syllabi. Mina Shrestha, 21, a computer science student, said, “We used GitHub forums, subreddits, tutorials. Now even that is gone. We’re stuck with textbooks from another decade.”

Recruitment firms sending workers to the Gulf and Southeast Asia were also hit. “With LinkedIn and Zoom gone, we’ve gone back to emails and international calls.,” said Manoj Raut, 52, who runs a manpower agency.

The opposition called the blackout a political tool. “First they jail our president (Rabi Lamichhane). Then they block the platforms people use to talk about it. This is tyranny,” said Pratibha Rawal, 42, joint spokesperson for Rastriya Swatantra Party.