BBC: <\/p>\n\n\n\n
At least 19 people have been killed and dozens injured in Nepal after demonstrations against political corruption and a government social media banled to clashes between protesters and security forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thousands heeded a call by demonstrators describing themselves as Generation Z to gather near the parliament building in Kathmandu over the decision to ban platforms including Facebook, X and YouTube, as well as over wider dissatisfaction with the government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nepal’s Minister for Communication Prithvi Subba told the BBC police had to use force – which included water cannons, batons and firing rubber bullets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The government has said social media platforms need to be regulated to tackle fake news, hate speech and online fraud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But popular platforms such as Instagram have millions of users in Nepal, who rely on them for entertainment, news and business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Demonstrators carried placards with slogans including “enough is enough” and “end to corruption”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some said they were protesting against what they called the authoritarian attitude of the government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many in Nepal think corruption is rampant, with the government also facing criticism for failing to deliver on promises to address the country’s longstanding economic issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sabana Budathoki told the BBC that the social media ban was “just the reason” they gathered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Rather than [the] social media ban, I think everyone’s focus is on corruption,” she explained, adding: “We want our country back – we came to stop corruption.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another protester said the ban was to “silence” their voices, so they came to “raise” their voices against that, which they will continue until it brings change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As the rally moved into a restricted area close to parliament, some protesters climbed over the wall.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BBC: At least 19 people have been killed and dozens injured in Nepal after demonstrations against political corruption and a government social media banled to clashes between protesters and security forces. Thousands heeded a call by demonstrators describing themselves as Generation Z to gather near the parliament building in Kathmandu over the decision to ban platforms including Facebook, X and YouTube, as well as over wider dissatisfaction with the government. Nepal’s Minister for Communication Prithvi Subba told the BBC police had to use force – which included water cannons, batons and firing rubber bullets. The government has said social media… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":49837,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49836","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-in-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49836","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=49836"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49836\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49838,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49836\/revisions\/49838"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/49837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=49836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=49836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=49836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}