Feed: Slashdot
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Title: Nepal's Social Media Ban Backfires as Politics Moves To a Chat Room

Link: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/09/12/0738...

An anonymous reader shares a report: An attempt to ban social media in Nepal
ended this week in violent protest with the prime minister ousted, the
Parliament in flames and soldiers on the streets of the capital. Now, the
very technology the government tried to outlaw is being harnessed to help
select the country's next leader, as more than 100,000 citizens are meeting
regularly in a virtual chat room to debate the country's future. More than 30
people were killed in clashes with the police during youth-led protests that
convulsed the capital in a paroxysm of outrage over wealth inequality,
corruption and plans to ban some social media platforms. After the
government's collapse on Tuesday, the military imposed a curfew across the
capital, Kathmandu, and restricted large gatherings. With the country in
political limbo and no obvious next leader in place, Nepalis have taken to
Discord, a platform popularized by video gamers, to enact the digital version
of a national convention. "The Parliament of Nepal right now is Discord,"
said Sid Ghimiri, 23, a content creator from Kathmandu, describing how the
site has become the center of the nation's political decision making. The
conversation inside the Discord channel, taking place in a combination of
voice, video, and text chats, is so consequential that it is being discussed
on national television and live streamed on news sites.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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