Nepal Blocks Most Social Media Platforms (apnews.com) 13
Nepal's government said Thursday it is blocking most social media platforms including Facebook, X and YouTube because the companies failed to comply with regulations that required them to register with the government. From a report: Nepal's Minister for Communication and Information Prithvi Subba Gurung said about two dozen social network platforms that are widely used in Nepal were repeatedly given notices to come forward and register their companies officially in the country. The platforms would be blocked immediately, he said.
TikTok, Viber and three other social media platforms would be allowed to operate in Nepal because they have registered with the government. Nepal government have been asking the companies to appoint a liaison office or point in the country. It has brought a bill in parliament that aims to ensure that social platforms are properly managed, responsible and accountable.
TikTok, Viber and three other social media platforms would be allowed to operate in Nepal because they have registered with the government. Nepal government have been asking the companies to appoint a liaison office or point in the country. It has brought a bill in parliament that aims to ensure that social platforms are properly managed, responsible and accountable.
Nice! (Score:4, Funny)
Nice excuse to startup a maillist, fewer ads and all that
And nothing of value was lost (Score:4, Interesting)
Now my recommendation to family and friends is "move to Nepal!"
Re:And nothing of value was lost (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3)
A lot of lost value was recovered.
Off topic: I think many more countries should follow suit and ask these misanthropes to register in their countries too. Then pass laws that puts these sinister companies on the wrong side of the law (which any ways they are) and ask them to pay hefty fines or leave the country. These fines can be used to finance lots of good things in these countries.
Re:why? (Score:4, Informative)
No, Mr (? almost certainly) AC, that's not the issue. It's more (if you RTFS, which you probably didn't) like "If you don't have an employee contactable in this country, with some responsibility for what happens on your site in this country, you can't operate in this country."
Which is actually quite a reasonable thing to require of a global corporation. A small operation - say an internet cafe which operates a number of mailing lists for local issues - is a very different thing.
They don't even require that there be some person in the country - just that the company have an address in the country. Which you can get in any capital city in the world for a lot less than an employee costs.
Consider another SM issue on Slashdot at the moment [slashdot.org] - the lawsuit between Mark Zuckerberg (middle-aged lawyer of a town on the same planet as Nepal) and Mar Zuckerberg (CEO of a SM company) ; if Mr Zuckerberg didn't have a legal "point of presence" in his country, it would be considerably harder for Mr Zuckerberg to sue Mr Zuckerberg for things Mr Zuckerberg's employees did causing costs and difficulties for Mr Zuckerberg.
There are currently about 200 "countries" on the planet (including a few entities like the Vatican City and Monaco which are probably subsumed into Italy - maybe France, for Monaco), and having to maintain a mailing address in each of, say, the smallest 25% of them would cost something like 2 or 3 employees, world wide. You'd probably need more employees to handle advertising SALES in those countries.
Re: (Score:2)
So, countries - including YOURS - cannot exert control over what happens in their borders?
Glad we got that uncertainty out of the way. Though as we've discovered form President TACO, he too doesn't believe that other countries should be able to choose what or how they conduct their business.
Next up, Nepal! Goooo, Nepal!!! (Score:4, Insightful)
Social platforms aren't properly managed, responsible or accountable. They're a sh*t show of "we'll do whatever we want because we have money!" Now the same fluff-brained pundits that were whinging about Europe "losing" (because their regulations won't let large corporations outright kill people, like America almost does right now) will have another target to whine about. Go Nepal. Go Europe. We are completely f***ed over here. Save yourselves. We can no longer help you until we send about 150 Million of our own idiots to "re-edumacation camps" or ship them off to Mars.
Re:Next up, Nepal! Goooo, Nepal!!! (Score:4, Funny)
150 million of your idiots would be about 1.5e11 litres or organic matter which would be roughly sufficient organic matter to fertilise 7.5e12 litres of regolith into something approaching "soil". Chopped finely, of course. That would, unless I've slipped a digit, make soil for a few square km of ground.
Musk needs you to breed more idiots so that he can actually eat food as King of Mars when he gets deported there. There is no point in being a king without subjects.
Oh no! (Score:1)
They lost Nepal?!?!?
What EVER will they do now???!!!!!
THIRD WORLD COUNTRIES blocking free speech (Score:1)
Nepal? What's next, Thailand because the king was insulted?
Social media platforms DON'T want to have a registered agent because those agents get arrested and held responsible and fined for thing that USER GENERATED CONTENT (UGC) cause.
Elon (yeah he's a dick) found this out in El Salvador and El Salvador nationalized (stole) SpaceX funds to cover Twitter "fines" as a result.
Don't conduct business in third-world countries. Don't have a registered agent. Don't register with the government. You're a FREAKI