Nepal lifts TikTok ban after app addresses cyber crime concerns

(This Aug. 22 story has been corrected to clarify that the statement was from TikTok, not ByteDance, in paragraph 3)

 

KATHMANDU (Reuters) - Nepal lifted a ban on Chinese-owned TikTok on Thursday, more than nine months after outlawing the popular video sharing app for disturbing "social harmony and goodwill."

 

The decision was taken at a cabinet meeting after the company agreed to cooperate with Nepal’s law enforcers to address TikTok-related crime and regulate its content, a government source said on condition of anonymity.

 

TikTok, whose holding company is Beijing-based ByteDance, said it was pleased with the decision.

 

Nepal’s previous government banned the app in November, citing concerns around its misuse. More than 1,600 TikTok-related cyber crime cases were registered over four years in the Himalayan nation before that.

 

Sporadic street protests erupted, with users saying the ban cut off a source of income and shut down a forum for free speech. TikTok had 2.2 million users in Nepal at the time, according to the Internet Service Providers’ Association of Nepal.

 

Nepal sought from TikTok a focal unit to assist the Cyber Bureau of Nepal Police round the clock to help nab criminals and block inappropriate content that has even led to suicides. 

 

"Prompt, real-time identification of users can be an effective tool to nab offenders and discourage misuse of the technology," Dipak Raj Awasti, the bureau’s spokesman, told Reuters on Thursday.

 

Several other countries have either partially or completely banned TikTok, with many citing national security and privacy concerns.

 

 (Reporting by Kathmandu bureau, editing by Shilpa Jamkhandikar)