6d ago

Nepal bans social media(Facebook, X, Reddit, Mastodon, Discord, Signal, YouTube and more) for failing to register with the government; Only 7 to be open(Viber, TikTok, Telegram and more)

en.setopati.com

All but these 7 social media platforms to be blocked in Nepal

cross-posted from: https://programming.dev/post/36863320

Viber, WeTalk, TikTok, Nimbuzz, and Poppo Live are already registered.
Similarly, Telegram and Global Diary are in the process of registration.
Social media platforms to be blocked:
Facebook
Facebook Messenger
Instagram
YouTube
WhatsApp
X (formerly Twitter)
LinkedIn
Snapchat
Reddit
Discord
Pinterest
Signal
Threads
WeChat
Quora
Tumblr
Clubhouse
Mastodon
Rumble
MeWe
VK
Line
IMO
Zalo
Soul
Hamro Patro

Technology @programming.dev

Pro @programming.dev

6d ago

Nepal bans social media(Facebook, X, Reddit, Mastodon, Discord, Signal, YouTube and more) for failing to register with the government; Only 7 to be open(Viber, TikTok, Telegram and more)

en.setopati.com /social/165133

62 comments

I wish them luck banning Mastodon, Lemmy, and Nostr... Oh wait, they cant
- I am curious how they are planning to ban Mastodon. I am assuming they are going to block say the top 25 instances?
  
  Hate to say it but it honestly doesn't sound crazy hard to just block any instance that pops up. Yes it's whack a mole but if it's an automated script, it can just crawl through a backdoor instance and ban any domain it sees.
  
  And as we all know, that would not ban it entirely. They'd have to block every instance, every new instance that comes online, the main web page, the code repository, etc., to even have a hope of banning it.
- Its totaly easy:
  Ban the apps
  Block major instances
  Jail some instance admins who doesn't shut down (and make a show out of it)
  No, you will not get the hobby revolutionary this way who really wants to "fight the man", but you surely will scare away the nepalese version of the average joe and with this effectively killing the networks there for main stream adoption.
  
  Are there any instance administrators in Nepal to jail?
  
  Not familiar with the other examples, but Lemmy doesn't need an app. Can get to it via browser. Maybe the others need one?
- Well, if they start by blocking the clients, then block any webpage or server sending / receiving ActivityPub packets at the ISP level, they could possibly cut it off. Heck, just spin up a new Mastodon or Lemmy server, send out a ping, and have every Nepalese ISP & mobile provider block all domains and IPs that respond.
  
  They're still tor.
Signal:
Settings -> Privacy -> Advanced -> Censorship Circumvention
- Signal is a social media platform?
  
  It's in the "to be blocked" list posted.
  
  signal has stories now, so I'd say yes
  
  Depends on how you want to look at it. They have "stories" which could most certainly be considered that.
OK so three things:
How are they going to ban Mastodon. Like they cannot ban every mastodon instance.
From what I know about people in regimes like this: VPN usage is basically normal because of things like this. I live in the UK and I'm using a VPN.
Hamro Patro, if you don't know, is the Nepali "everything" app. It's officially a calendar app, but it also does News, Horoscopes (something that's important to Nepalis I guess), Exchange Rates, Radio and Podcasts. It is one of the most popular apps in the country and the most popular Nepali developed app period. This is like if the US banned the CNN app or if the British Government banned the Sky News app.
- Modern laws rarely if ever have anything to do with what they claim to be changing. Just figure out where the graft is flowing and that's your answer. There's no graft to be had with mastodon because nobody is making any money there so at first it's simply ignored unless it annoys someone in Nepal's government. If an instance suddenly started getting popular and making money in Nepal then it gets on their radar and they have to start paying bribes to continue operating just like the big guys, and there will be no room at all for a 'medium guy' who makes a little profit but not enough to comply with the requirements of corruption.
  
  It doesn't need to make money, it just needs to be a "Problem".
- A number of these sites try hard to Filter out VPN users.
They only implement DNS blocking so you have to change your DNS and everything will work again — this is also the case with their ban on porn sites. It's just an inconvenience to the citizens, all because they aren't competent enough to manage "criminal activites".
None of the platforms allowed employs E2E encryption, does it?
- Telegram allowed. It does not e2e encrypt by default. How will they make sure that option isn't chosen by Nepalese?
  All Nepal is asking for is registration so that there is a point of contact if there are any complaints. Telegram contacted Nepal after being banned.
  Others didn't respond and deliberately have no contact details online.
  I tried to contact Reddit in Sydney about my ban but could only make them down to a multi-client large office building in Barangaroo.
  This isn't necessarily a bad move on Nepal's part.
Bye Nepal, see you again after you line up all you tie-wearers against the wall
Wao, Nepal is another part of the UK. Learning something new every day.
I'm not sure what the big deal is here. They're dealing with a known rise in crime and fraud. this isn't just a bogeyman "save the children" thing, it's that they want to have access to the platform to keep things safe for their people and everyone else.
I think it's more than reasonable to have a specific point of contact if there's any issues related to a criminal investigation. And the lack of response from the Big Two is evidence that they don't care.
- Assocks. They don't need (backend-level) access to the platform in order to fight that. They just have to do good, boots-on-the-ground detective work. In other words, earn their salaries. We don't precime-inalize silverware companies because people may use kitchen knives to kill each other.
  
  No, but if one brand of knife is used in the majority of a category of crimes, it's fair that the government should have a clear point of contact with the manufacturer to help identify why it's happening and how it can be prevented.
  Realize this: The Nepalese government is being treated the same way as a "normal" person - they're having trouble prosecuting these crimes because they're not being given any access to hidden or deleted posts. They're having to go though the useless fake support chats and the like. What they're demanding, mostly, is that they have a known human being who will cooperate with the government and to whom they have a clear and unambiguous connection. Frankly speaking, I think that ought to be a bare-minimum for any company anywhere. I don't support corporate sovereignty or corporate personhood. If you have a company operating in a nation, that nation should always have a clear point of contact for law enforcement & taxation purposes, as well as more general communication when needed.
- ... Long farting noise

62 comments