{ GEN Z PROTESTS } FROM DJ TO POWER BROKER Discord and Instagram: The tools that toppled Nepal’s govt

A former DJ and his obscure Nepalese nonprofit used a social media app popular with video gamers to drive massive protests and become the unlikely power brokers in installing the country’s new interim leadership.

- Reuters

Sudan Gurung, the 36-year-old founder of Hami Nepal (We are Nepal), used the Discord messaging app and Instagram to mobilise massive demonstrations that forced prime minister KP Sharma Oli to resign, in the deadliest political crisis to hit the Himalayan nation in decades, a dozen people involved in the demonstrations said.

The group used VPNs to access banned platforms and issued calls to action that reached tens of thousands of young people, they added. Representatives for Oli could not be contacted for comment.

“I was invited to join a group on Discord where there were 400 members. It asked us to join the protest march a few kilometres from the parliament,” said 18-year-old student Karan Kulung Rai.

Hami Nepal's early social media posts on Discord became so influential that they were referenced on national television.

As protests grew violent, the group also identified messages it termed “fake news” and shared hospital phone numbers.