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Nepal moves to block Facebook, X, YouTube and others

(www.aljazeera.com)
286 points saikatsg | 10 comments | 05 Sep 25 11:31 UTC | HN request time: 0.416s | source | bottom
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dahsameer ◴[05 Sep 25 12:42 UTC] No.45137841[source]▶
I'm from Nepal. The bans are implemented in a pretty straightforward way: ISPs simply don't resolve DNS queries for these services. switch your DNS, and you're good to go. There are 26 apps that were banned: Facebook, Facebook Messenger, Instagram, YouTube, WhatsApp, Twitter, LinkedIn, Snapchat, Reddit, Discord, Pinterest, Signal, Threads, WeChat, Quora, Tumblr, Clubhouse, Mastodon, MeWe, Rumble, VK, Line, IMO, Zalo, Soul, and Hamro Patro.
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qwerty456127 ◴[05 Sep 25 19:48 UTC] No.45142840[source]▶
Blocking Signal or Reddit sounds bizarre for a civilized democratic country. What sense can that make other than denying people the right for privacy of personal communications or uncensored information access? I am very surprised Nepal goes this way.
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1. stainablesteel ◴[05 Sep 25 20:07 UTC] No.45143033[source]▶
maybe this is odd but i just have to ask, do you consider reddit usage to be the sign of a civilized democracy?
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2. skirge ◴[05 Sep 25 20:13 UTC] No.45143099[source]▶
reddit makes no harm, thus there is no reason to block it.
replies(1): >>45143673 #
3. qwerty456127 ◴[05 Sep 25 20:22 UTC] No.45143189[source]▶
I consider banning it uncharacteristic to such. I can hardly consider a state where people are not allowed to access Reddit (as well as HN, Wikipedia or StackExchange) freely and anonymously a healthy civilized democracy. It can still be a very civilized society in general but tightening control on the people like this indicates the government is going slippery slope.
replies(2): >>45143655 #>>45147757 #
4. AdrianB1 ◴[05 Sep 25 21:04 UTC] No.45143594[source]▶
Reddit, civilized and democracy are not strongly correlated. Free speech and civilized, they are.
5. skinnymuch ◴[05 Sep 25 21:09 UTC] No.45143655[source]▶
I’d think it doesn’t specifically mean anything for civilized or democracy or slippery slope to block a bunch of western sites.
replies(1): >>45143841 #
6. skinnymuch ◴[05 Sep 25 21:10 UTC] No.45143673[source]▶
Reddit is a western American site while western hegemony exists. There’s always a reason for the global south to block western sites/companies
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7. qwerty456127 ◴[05 Sep 25 21:29 UTC] No.45143841{3}[source]▶
The grammar is our enemy here. Blocking a website may be Okay. Blocking a person willing to access it is not.
8. qwerty456127 ◴[05 Sep 25 21:33 UTC] No.45143875{3}[source]▶
Sure - the reason is the want more control over their people, they want to surveil them (hence blocking Signal), they want them to only read or express "correct" texts and prevent them from participating in open loosely-moderated discussions (hence blocking Reddit).
9. int_19h ◴[05 Sep 25 22:19 UTC] No.45144324{3}[source]▶
Wouldn't want comrades to get cooties from reading icky things?
10. newyankee ◴[06 Sep 25 09:09 UTC] No.45147757[source]▶
Many national subreddits are taken over by power hungry mods who now have behind the scene help from nation-states. Despite ample evidence and other subreddits highlighting consistent systemic biases there is no way to remove mods or change policies. I understand it is difficult to make it completely unbiased as subjectivity and a lot of other factors will influence what counts are right or wrong in that scenario, and mods are not even paid either. But then this always made it ripe for influence from other areas as a part of information warfare and here we are with the outcome