The Commission of Inquiry report noted that plans to make petrol bombs, violent messages, and misleading information were widely spread on Discord servers.
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The report of the Commission of Inquiry formed to investigate the repression of the Gen-G uprising and the subsequent destructive events described the social media platform Discord as a powerful digital mechanism used to plan the movement.
The report mentions that Discord has become the main medium for organizing and mobilizing the movement. Two servers, named ‘Youth Hub’ and ‘Youth Against Corruption’, are particularly active there, and it is said that there were more than 664,000 conversations on them during the movement (in about 50 hours). The report points out that since the afternoon of Bhadra 23, plans to use ‘Molotov cocktails’, i.e. petrol bombs, have been being made on Discord. ‘A bomb made using petrol and cloth in a bottle, which was discussed 356 times on Discord,’ the report says, ‘It has been found that formulas for making sodium metal and napalm were exchanged in Discord conversations.’ In addition, the commission’s report mentions that false and misleading information such as ‘rape in a hostel’ and ‘exaggerated death toll’ was spread on Discord during the protest, which played a role in further inciting and anarchy among the crowd.’
According to the report, the National Investigation Department lacks skilled manpower and equipment to track and analyze the conversations on digital platforms like Discord. Sudhan Gurung, who is considered one of the organizers of the protest, also said in his statement that he informed the police and the Cyber Bureau on the 22nd after receiving information that some anarchic groups may engage in violent activities on Discord.
Former Prime Minister Jhalanath Khanal has mentioned in his statement that the Discord application was first used for political gain in Yemen and later misused in Nepal as well.
