The Broken Cord: Nepal and the Broken Digital Lifeline

Symbol of resistance: The Nepali flag bleeding in 2025, reflecting the struggles and sacrifices of a protesting generation/Image created using AI

In Kathmandu, the heart beats twice: once for the mountains, and once for the children who leave them. In 2024, those children sent home eleven billion dollars in remittances—money that became rice in a bowl, a school uniform, a hospital bed. It was not wealth, but survival. Survival spoke through WhatsApp calls from Qatar, Viber messages from Seoul, Facebook photos from Malaysia.

So when Nepal’s government banned twenty-six social media platforms in September 2025, it did not merely silence dissent. It severed the threads of daily life.

A mother in Pokhara who waits each evening for her son’s voice suddenly heard only silence. A father in Dhangadhi, eager to show his grandson’s first steps through a flickering video call, found the screen frozen. Overnight, the distance between loved ones became infinite.

That is why the protests erupted so fiercely—not because young Nepalis were denied the right to post memes or slogans, but because the fragile lifeline that tied their fractured society together was cut. 

The Week Nepal Burned

On September 4th, the government blocked Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, X, YouTube, and more, citing failure to register locally. For Nepal’s Gen Z—raised on TikTok memes, WhatsApp calls to migrant brothers, and Instagram reels—it felt like a betrayal.

By September 8th, the streets erupted. Protesters stormed government offices, hotels burned, and police answered with rubber bullets and live rounds. By nightfall, at least 19 people lay dead, with hundreds more wounded. A “shoot-at-sight” order hung heavy in the air, as helicopters ferried ministers to safety and the army imposed curfews across Kathmandu.

The rage was not just at the ban. It was at the sight of “nepo kids”—the children of ministers and business elites, flaunting designer brands, Dubai holidays, and imported cars on Instagram. While ordinary young Nepalis queued at job centers or saved to pay recruitment fees for Gulf visas, the elite flaunted excess.

For a generation already suffocated by unemployment and corruption, the irony was unbearable.

“They live in Dubai, we live in Dallu. Their children drive BMWs, we drive rickshaws. And when we raise our voice, they cut even the internet,” a student protester told local media.

On September 9th, the government relented. The ban was lifted, Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli resigned, and curfews softened. But the scar remained: the state had revealed its fear of its own youth.

The Fragile Ground Beneath

The protests were not born in a vacuum. Beneath the surface, the ground had long been cracking.

The National Statistics Office reported unemployment at 12.6% in 2022–23—up from 11.4% in 2017–18—a 1.2 percentage point rise over five years. But this number accounts only for formal-sector jobs—the neat jobs with contracts. It does not see the peanut seller at Ratna Park, the seamstress stitching garments in a rented room, or the taxi driver whose day ends in debt.

By some accounts, more than three-quarters of Nepali workers are informally employed—beyond the reach of surveys or policies. Among the young (ages 15–24), unemployment reached 22.7% in 2022–23—a sharp burden for the most educated generation in the nation’s history.

And when they look back, they see not opportunity, but scandal.

The Pokhara International Airport, built with Chinese loans, became the emblem of betrayal. A parliamentary probe uncovered over NPR 14 billion (around USD 70 million) in irregularities and misappropriation during its construction.

The airport gleams against the sky—but for many, it is a monument to what was stolen.

Table 1: Key Flashpoints During Nepal's Gen Z Uprising

 

South Asia in the Mirror

Nepal’s story echoes across its borders.

In Bangladesh, remittances of around $22 billion—about 6% of GDP—sustain households, even as youth unemployment hovers above 11%. During student protests or elections, the state has repeatedly throttled Facebook and WhatsApp to choke dissent.

In Sri Lanka, remittances amount to $5.5 billion (approximately 8% of GDP). But it was not only fuel shortages or inflation that brought people to the streets in 2022—it was also glaring corruption tied to elite families. Social media bans failed to silence the rising tide.

In Pakistan, $30 billion in remittances (8.5% of GDP) hold the economy together. Yet, TikTok, YouTube, and Twitter are routinely blocked during unrest. For migrants’ families in remote villages, those bans mean silence when they most need to speak.

In each case, we see: a youth bulge without jobs, economies sustained by remittances, states corroded by corruption, and digital platforms treated as liabilities rather than lifelines.

 

Table 2: South Asia Digital Lifelines

 

A Wider Horizon: South Africa and Turkey

This pattern stretches beyond South Asia.

In South Africa, overall unemployment stood at 31.9% in Q4–2024, while youth unemployment reached nearly 59%—some estimates say up to 61%, climbing to 71% when counting those discouraged from looking for work. Informal work remains pervasive. Corruption scandals—from Eskom to “state capture”—have eroded trust. Protests are not rare; they are routine. Social media remains the repeater of the poor voice, even as the state plays with surveillance and throttling.

Table 3: Global Echoes

In Turkey, youth unemployment nears 18%. A vast diaspora in Europe leans on digital platforms to connect home. Corruption flows through construction and disaster relief funds. In 2023, as survivors of a devastating earthquake scrambled for rescue, Twitter was blocked for around 12 hours, rousing widespread condemnation. The move was not merely political censorship—it was a severing of survival.

 

The Anatomy of a Digital-Lifeline Protest

Across these nations, the anatomy is the same:

1. Youth without work: An educated generation restless without opportunity.

2. Families sustained by remittances: Economy kept alive by those hungering abroad.

3. Corruption without consequence: Elite capture of airports, fuel, electricity, aid.

4. The digital cord is cut: Ban or throttle, severing both political speech and family networks.

5. Streets ignite: Because the attack is on survival, not just on expression.

 

The Warning

Nepal lifted its ban after days of blood and fire. The prime minister resigned. But the story extends deeper—into places where informal work dominates, remittances sustain, corruption corrodes, and digital threads hold families together.

In such places, social media is not entertainment—it is infrastructure. As vital as electricity, as intimate as breath. When governments slice it away, they do not merely offend civil liberties. They disconnect the circuits of care, of belonging, of survival.

And when those circuits go dark, people light the streets

 

References

1. National Statistics Office, Fourth Nepal Living Standards Survey (NLSS-IV) 2022–23, Government of Nepal, June 2024. NSO Nepal

2. The Annapurna Express, “Unemployment rate climbs to 12.6%, youth sorrow rise to 22.7%”, February 2025. The Annapurna Express

3. Kathmandu Post, “Billions embezzled in Pokhara airport works, probe finds”, April 18, 2025. Kathmandu Post

4. MyRepublica, “Rs 14 billion corruption uncovered in construction of Pokhara Airport”, April 17, 2025. myRepublica

5. Firstpost/Deccan Herald, “Nepal panel finds massive graft in China-built airport”, April 19, 2025. Deccan Herald

6. International Labour Organization, Informal Economy & Workers in Nepal. International Labour Organization

7. AP News, “South Africa’s unemployment rate rises to 32.1% in Q4 2023; youth unemployment 59.4%”, February 2024. AP News

8. AP News, “South Africa’s unemployment is a ‘ticking time bomb,’ youth at 61% jobless”, earlier. AP News

9. Reuters, “South Africa’s unemployment rate rises to 32.9% in Q1 2025”, May 2025. Reuters

10. Wikipedia, “Economy of South Africa”, noting youth unemployment at 44.6% Q4 2024. Wikipedia

11. Scientific American, “Turkey’s Twitter cutoff harmed earthquake rescue operations.” Scientific American

12. Reuters, “Anger over Turkey’s temporary Twitter block during quake rescue”, February 2023. Reuters

13. Washington Post, “Supvivors in Turkey struggle to access Twitter and TikTok after the earthquake”, February 2023. The Washington Post