Nepal bans China's TikTok for lacking "effectiveness, maturity and responsibility"

Nepal has become the latest country to ban TikTok, saying “misuse” of the Chinese app is damaging the fabric of their society and its moral values.

The government said the decision came after an outcry of Nepali citizens continued complaining that the app was out of control and the origin of many growing social problems.

So far, TikTok has been completely or partially banned in other countries, many of which have complained about cybercrime security concerns.

More than 1,600 TikTok-related instances of cyber-crime have been documented during the past four years in Nepal, according to Asian media reports.

Rekha Sharma, the country’s Minister for Communications and Information Technology said the ban was decided upon during a Monday cabinet meeting.

“Colleagues are working on closing it technically,” Sharma said in an interview with the Reuters news wire service.

Purushottam Khanal, Chairman of the Nepal Telecom Authority said Nepali internet service providers were asked to shut down the app.

“Some have already closed while others are doing it later today,” Khanal told Reuters.

In the past, TikTok has said bans are “misguided” based on “misconceptions,” but many U.S. political officials on both sides of the aisle—Democrats and Republicans—have expressed concern about the damage the app is causing young people and its potentiality for foreign influence campaigns linked to the CCP.

Still, in Nepal, the issue remains a partisan one as Nepali opposition leaders lashed out against the move, saying it lacked “effectiveness, maturity and responsibility.”

But that’s because in Nepal, one of the opposition parties is a Unified Marxist Leninist organization.

”There are many unwanted materials in other social media also. What must be done is to regulate and not restrict them," former foreign minister and a senior leader of the Communist Party of Nepal Pradeep Gyawali said.

Nepal's neighboring nation state, India, outlawed TikTok along with other Chinese apps last year, saying that they were a danger to national integrity and security.

Pakistan has banned the app at least four times over its “immoral and indecent” content.

Several states in the U.S. have already banned TikTok and congressional lawmakers are currently considering implementing a national ban, also citing national security reasons.