by Right groups asked Nepal on Thursday to reverse a ban on the telegram -messaging app and to describe the move as a serious threat to freedom of expression and digital privacy.
The Himalaya nation blocked access to the app on July 18 and quoted an increase in online fraud and money laundering.
“The prohibition of the government is a serious violation of human rights and a discriminatory decision,” said Taranath Dahal from the Freedom Forum, a guard dog for media freedom.
“This shows that the government can ban any platform without transparency, which is extremely worrying.”
The Freedom Forum included more than two dozen organizations to publish a statement in which an “immediate” reversal of the ban was requested.
“The sudden, illegal disorder has strongly influenced journalists, human rights defenders, students, small companies and others who rely on the platform for the essential everyday communication,” says one of #keepiton, an international coalition of civil society organizations.
Min Prasad Aryal, spokesman for the Nepalese telecommunications authority, confirmed the government’s guideline.
“We asked all Internet service providers to block the app after we received an arrangement from the Prime Minister’s office,” AFP told AFP.
In an explanation sent to AFP, Telegram said that “always reacted to Nepal’s legal inquiries” and “actively mitigated the harmful content on its platform and eliminated cases of fraud and money laundering as soon as they were discovered, even though we have not received any reports about it from the Nepalese authorities.”
In the past, Nepal has restricted access to popular online platforms.
In August last year, the government increased a nine-month ban from Tiktok after the South Asia Division of the platform approved to comply with the regulations of the Nepalese provisions.
Telegram, which was introduced in 2013, is a cloud-based messaging app that is known for your data protection properties and support for large group chats and round channels.
The app has an estimated billions of users worldwide, but faces restrictions in some countries.
The founder and managing director Pavel Durov in Telegram, born in Russia, was arrested briefly in France last year and this week again questioned the alleged complicity of the platform in criminal activity.
Str/PM/Sai/Abh/Fox/JND-KSB/Tym
