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Last Thursday, in a formal discussion with the government of Nepal, representatives of the social network platform Meta promised to send their response within the deadline given to be listed in Nepal, but they have not yet sent any response. In the meantime, the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology has started a study on the impact of shutting down unlisted social media platforms.
According to Gajendra Kumar Thakur, spokesperson of the ministry, with the silence of Meta, the ministry is evaluating the technical, legal and social impact of the possible next steps. "During the conversation with us, Metta said that he would send a reply, but we have not been able to understand why he is not sending it," he said, "We are discussing pros and cons about what to do now." Studying the next process and making a report is being done.' According to
spokesperson Thakur, the government (Ministerial level or Council of Ministers) will take the final decision after determining the necessary strategy based on the evaluation. The Minister of Communication and Information Technology Prithvisubba Gurung has been saying that Meta will be given more time to be listed as a last chance. Ministry Another official of the ministry said that they are ready to move forward after talking to Meta again.
Just last Thursday, Meta's Public Policy Manager Rujan Sarwar and other representatives from Singapore had a virtual conversation with the Ministry's official along with Communications Secretary Radhika Aryal for about an hour . An official who participated in the discussion said that the representative of Meta expressed the intention that the representative of Meta will follow the laws of Nepal but the company is not obliged to be listed according to the guidelines.
The ministry has been requesting individuals, companies or organizations who want to operate social media to be listed in the ministry in accordance with Section 3 of the 'Guidelines for Managing the Use of Social Media, 2080'. In section 6 of the guidelines, it is mentioned that the social network company should arrange a contact point in Nepal, an officer to hear resident complaints and an officer to monitor self-regulation compliance . Along with the
directive, the Cabinet meeting led by Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli has been repeatedly reminding the companies to comply with the conditions including the mandatory listing of the responsibilities to be followed by the social media platforms . However, Mamta Bastola, the head of social network management unit of the ministry, has informed that only Tiktok, Viber and Vitak have been listed.
Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, Threads and other platforms have significant users. According to Data Report's 2025 report, the most 143 million Nepalese use Facebook, while the number of people using the Messenger app is 19 million. Similarly, platforms like YouTube, Snapchat, WeChat, Reddit and others have not been listed, along with LinkedIn, which has about 2 million users, and X, which has 390,000 users.
The Ministry issued a notice for the third time on 7 March 2081, calling on social media companies to be listed in the Ministry's Social Media Management Unit within a month. The deadline has expired on May 7. Instead of encouraging listing, the government has warned of bans and experts have been pointing out that in addition to increasing international bandwidth consumption, local employment and daily life will be affected.
