Social media can make or break governments

Irrespective of the merits or demerits of the possible fallouts of regime change in Nepal last week following mass protests and violence, it provides a window of opportunity for every country, especially in the global south, to reinitiate the discourse on regulation of social media platforms.

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As the 13-hour power cut triggered Sri Lanka's Aragalaya of 2022 which led to the toppling of the Gotabaya Rajapaksa government on a subsequent anti-corruption campaign, it was the ban on 26 social media platforms that served as the trigger for Nepali protests and the resultant resignation of Prime minister K.P Sharma Oli's government on September 9, similarly on an anti-corruption campaign.

In fact, the Oli government did not initially want to ban any social media platforms; rather, it wanted to regulate them through registering them with the relevant state authorities. The Gen Z or the "demographic cohort" born between 1997 and 2012 in the country also did not oppose the government's move to regulate the platforms, whatever the real motive of the government was. Despite several platforms agreeing to it, 26 platforms did not fall in line with the government, resulting in it banning them on September 4. It was then that the youth, especially the Gen Z went crazy.

The refusal to register by Western tech companies is an indication of the power they wield against small states. Would they have responded to a similar call by a powerful Western country?