Nepal's Social Media Ban Backfires as Politics Moves To a Chat Room (nytimes.com) 17
An anonymous reader shares a report: An attempt to ban social media in Nepal ended this week in violent protest with the prime minister ousted, the Parliament in flames and soldiers on the streets of the capital. Now, the very technology the government tried to outlaw is being harnessed to help select the country's next leader, as more than 100,000 citizens are meeting regularly in a virtual chat room to debate the country's future.
More than 30 people were killed in clashes with the police during youth-led protests that convulsed the capital in a paroxysm of outrage over wealth inequality, corruption and plans to ban some social media platforms. After the government's collapse on Tuesday, the military imposed a curfew across the capital, Kathmandu, and restricted large gatherings. With the country in political limbo and no obvious next leader in place, Nepalis have taken to Discord, a platform popularized by video gamers, to enact the digital version of a national convention.
"The Parliament of Nepal right now is Discord," said Sid Ghimiri, 23, a content creator from Kathmandu, describing how the site has become the center of the nation's political decision making. The conversation inside the Discord channel, taking place in a combination of voice, video, and text chats, is so consequential that it is being discussed on national television and live streamed on news sites.
More than 30 people were killed in clashes with the police during youth-led protests that convulsed the capital in a paroxysm of outrage over wealth inequality, corruption and plans to ban some social media platforms. After the government's collapse on Tuesday, the military imposed a curfew across the capital, Kathmandu, and restricted large gatherings. With the country in political limbo and no obvious next leader in place, Nepalis have taken to Discord, a platform popularized by video gamers, to enact the digital version of a national convention.
"The Parliament of Nepal right now is Discord," said Sid Ghimiri, 23, a content creator from Kathmandu, describing how the site has become the center of the nation's political decision making. The conversation inside the Discord channel, taking place in a combination of voice, video, and text chats, is so consequential that it is being discussed on national television and live streamed on news sites.
Comment tree for Nepalis to comment.. (Score:3)
Do we have any Nepalis left? It would be really interesting to here if you guys feel involved / feel it's working / feel you can achieve something? What is being done to ensure the safety and security of the people involved in the chat, if anything?
(I thought of calling this a thread, but we ain't newfangled social media, so I didn't)
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They seem to now have a new government. I feel I have seen a Nepali at least once on Slashdot, but their internet isn't great (not terrible, not great) so sadly I guess we don't get any comment. Hope this works out for them.
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Sure. trn and then nn all had threads. Good times. Still, it feels very newfangled and reddit like (\j).
Hope discord does better than facebook. (Score:5, Interesting)
Last time we had some major thing with social media controlling politics it was Facebook in the middle east, for example Syria, and ended up as a disaster for Facebook users with everybody imprisoned and many being tortured by people like Assad. It's gonna be interesting to see if Discord does a better job. The crackdown happened by peoples phones being forcibly taken from them and then "rubber hose" cryptanaysis applied on borders and so on. What's the advice to protect people?
Remove secrets from your phone when crossing borders and put them back on when you get internet on the other side.
Turn off face unlock and finger unlock and similar when out on the street.
Use a password to protect your discord (it seems you remove the app or use a separate login and use the browser version in incognito mode)
no path of succession? (Score:2)
I'm surprised that any (non-dictator) government today doesn't have a clear path-of-succession in place. The US has like six steps of succession iirc?
Sure, when you're digging that deep into the barrel you're not getting someone with the best of qualifications for the position, but at least you have a name.
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Re: no path of succession? (Score:2)
US succession includes every secretary position in the order their department was created. That makes the succession pool 18 deep, with DHS secretary coming in last.
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Parliamentary systems have an order of succession. When the Prime minister passes away or is prevented, s/he is replaced by someone else from the same government. When the Prime minister resigns or falls due to a motion in the Parliament, an interim leader is nominated (with limited powers) until a full-power government can be elected. Even in the situations where the news tell you there is "no government", there always is a government. The same people stay in place until a replacement is found. However the
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The US has like six steps of succession iirc?
The US has up to 18 people in the line of presidential succession: the VP, the House speaker, the Senate pro tem, and the 15 cabinet-level heads. There could be less than 18 at any one time because some of the 18 could be ineligible, for example, by either not being a natural-born citizen or younger than 35.
Exagerated Self-importance (Score:5, Informative)
Nepal does have a succession process. The latest news was that the president had picked a Supreme Court justice as the new prime minister but the constitution requires the prime minister to be a member of parliament. If not, then the parliament needs to be dissolved and new elections held. The president doesn't want to dissolve parliament so is looking for a work around.
In short, whatever the discussion on discord, the people elected with actual power are moving forward based on the constitution. That may nor my not quell the rebellion but it doesn't make discord a decision making body.
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Nepal does have a succession process. The latest news was that the president had picked a Supreme Court justice as the new prime minister but the constitution requires the prime minister to be a member of parliament. If not, then the parliament needs to be dissolved and new elections held. The president doesn't want to dissolve parliament so is looking for a work around.
In short, whatever the discussion on discord, the people elected with actual power are moving forward based on the constitution. That may nor my not quell the rebellion but it doesn't make discord a decision making body.
If this happened in the US, there wouldn't be a problem. The US Supreme Court has unquestioned power to interpret the Constitution, so it could appoint whoever to whatever position and just declare that it's constitutional since only their opinion counts. Couldn't the Nepalese Supreme Court do the same?
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If this happened in the US, there wouldn't be a problem. The US Supreme Court has unquestioned power to interpret the Constitution, so it could appoint whoever to whatever position and just declare that it's constitutional since only their opinion counts. Couldn't the Nepalese Supreme Court do the same?
If they wanted their building torched next, along with possibly their homes, and also risk being paraded naked through the streets, sure.
The army is maintaining order for the moment, but isn't exactly against the protesters, as a large percentage of them are the same age group and face the same problems as the protesters.
This is a case of absolutely needing the "consent of the governed" to effectively have a government.
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This is a case of absolutely needing the "consent of the governed" to effectively have a government.
Yeah, that is an issue many governments will "solve" using armies of drones and robots rather sooner than later. Maybe Nepal can secure a place in history books for becoming the last nation ever to have a government removed via rebellion.
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Look over here while we appoint new people. (Score:4, Interesting)