Even though the Nepalese government has repeatedly sent letters to Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Messenger, the social media platform with the largest number of users in Nepal, for a year, no response has been received.

Even though the users complain about platforms like Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp, Threads to the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, the ministry is confused as to what to do with those complaints as the company is not listed.

Information officer Mamta Bastola, who is also the coordinator of the ministry's social media management unit, said that more than 200 complaints related to social media have been received so far. Bastola says that although most of the complaints are related to Facebook on the 'Social Network Grievance Registration' platform on the ministry's website, the company has not been informed about those complaints as the company has not come to the ministry for listing. 

"Most of the complaints are about unrelated matters like accounts being hacked, being cheated, being trolled," said Bastola, "we forward such complaints to the Cyber ​​Bureau of Nepal Police." 90% of complaints are related to Meta's platform. But in Nepal, Meta's point of content has become uncomfortable.'

The government had started the online complaint registration process based on the 'Guidelines for Managing the Use of Social Networks, 2080' issued on November 11, 2080. Section 13 of the directive states that a social media management unit will be established and the unit will register complaints related to social media use.

According to the directive, social network companies must be listed in the ministry and their points of content, i.e. contact persons, must be designated. The ministry was prepared to inform the contact person of the relevant platform if there is a complaint that needs to be resolved by the social media platform. 

Bastola said that till now only three social media platforms including Tiktok, Viber and Vitak have been listed in Nepal. Facebook's parent company Meta, which has the largest number of 13.5 million users, has not even responded to repeated emails sent by the Nepalese government asking to be listed. There are 3.6 million users of Instagram under Meta in Nepal, while the number of Facebook Messenger users was 1850,000 in 2024. 

'We have written to Meta, X, LinkedIn asking to be listed. But they have not come," said Bastola, "Now the government is preparing to move forward by creating a law related to social media. The bill has gone to the Cabinet. There is no option for the platforms to be listed after the law makes it mandatory.

The number of social media users in Nepal is about 13.5 million. The study showed that 56.4 percent of them are men and 43.6 percent are women. 

Why isn't there an option to register a complaint on TikTok? 

The video sharing platform Tiktok, which has been re-launched after a one-year ban, has been organizing various awareness programs in Nepal recently. A few weeks ago, when announcing their 'Safety Ambassador Program', Tiktok's representative requested to report any harmful content found on the platform immediately. 

For this, the government of Nepal has also created a means of registering complaints and Tiktok said that they will immediately address the complaints received from it. 

Imad Zafar, Global Communications Representative of ByteDance, Ticket's parent company, who came to Nepal for the event, specifically encouraged users and TikTok content creators to report harmful content.

'The government of Nepal has created its own channel so that users can report harmful content that may appear on TikTok, the government sends us the reports received there and we have a special team to manage those content,' he said, 'the report feature in our app or Nepal I request everyone to make use of the government's complaint registration channel.' 

But the Tiktok option is not found when selecting 'types of social media' within the 'social media related complaint management' platform launched by the government a year ago. After clicking on the 'Social Network Grievance Registration' option in the hidden icon in the menu of the Ministry of Communication website, you have to select 'Type of Social Network' in the new page that opens.

It does not include TikTok option. Facebook, X, Instagram, LinkedIn and other options are mentioned. Users can register a complaint by clicking on 'Other'. The spelling of Instagram and LinkedIn on the website of the Ministry of Information Technology has also been wrong for a year. 

Tiktok was banned in Nepal when the ministry launched a system where complaints can be registered online from January last year. That is why TikTok was not included in the 'complaint registration' platform at that time. Even though it has been three months since the ban on Tiktok was lifted, the Ministry and the responsible unit have not paid attention to this matter.