Nepal is experiencing significant civil unrest, with protesters storming government buildings and setting politicians' homes on fire.
Dubbed the 'Gen Z' protests, they were sparked by a government crackdown on social media platforms, which the government later lifted.
But demonstrators said it went beyond a social media ban.
Here is why young Nepalese people took to the streets.
What is happening in Nepal?
There have been heated protests involving tens of thousands of people in Nepal this week.
While unrest was concentrated around political buildings in the country's capital, Kathmandu, demonstrations were also held in Itahari, Biratnagar, Bharatpur and Pokhara.
[map - nepal]In Kathmandu, some demonstrators set fire to government buildings — including the Singha Durbar complex, which houses the Nepali prime minister's office — and politicians' homes.
Local media said some ministers had been plucked to safety by military helicopters.
Video shared on social media showed protesters attacking Nepali Congress party leader Sher Bahadur Deuba and his wife, Arzu Rana Deuba, the current foreign minister.
How have the protests unfolded?
On Monday, tens of thousands of people gathered in Kathmandu, with police firing tear gas and rubber bullets at protesters trying to storm parliament.
The army was deployed and a curfew was imposed.
News agencies reported that 19 people died — two of them in the southern city of Itahari — and more than 100 were injured.
The government later lifted the social media ban, but that appeared to have little effect on the unrest.
On Tuesday, protesters again gathered in front of parliament and other places in the capital Kathmandu, defying the curfew.
Then came the announcement that Nepal's Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Oli had resigned — but still the protests continued.
"What started as celebrations quickly turned into violence," South Asia correspondent Meghna Bali said.
"Crowds broke through the gates of parliament, stormed the building and set parts of it on fire."
What are people in Nepal protesting?
The demonstrations have been called the "protest of Gen Z", encapsulating a combination of issues, including:
- A social media ban
- Social media regulation
- Corruption
- The disparity between wealthy politicians and the poor
- The lack of economic opportunities for young people
The protests started in response to the government banning some social media platforms last week, as well as its broader attempt to regulate social media.
Nepal's government has been pursuing a bill aimed at ensuring that about two dozen social media platforms are "properly managed, responsible and accountable."
While the government said it was about cracking down on cybercrime and spreading hatred, it has been widely criticised as a tool for censorship and punishing opponents who voice their protests online.
This came at a time of growing discontent among locals about the government.
In the weeks leading up to the protests, activists had been spotlighting the lavish lifestyles of politicians’ children, highlighting disparities between Nepal’s rich and poor.
Protesters criticised them for flaunting their luxury possessions in a country where the per capita income is $1,400 a year.
On top of this, there has been widespread criticism over the government’s failure to pursue some major corruption cases.
And protesters also say the government has failed to create more economic opportunities for young people — Nepal's youth unemployment rate in Nepal was 20 per cent last year, according to the World Bank.
Not just about social media
"Protests over the social media ban were just a catalyst," Nepalese independent news website Baahrakhari's editor Prateek Pradhan said.
"Frustrations over how the country is being run have long been simmering under the surface.
"People are very angry and Nepal finds itself in a very precarious situation."
In an email to Reuters signed by "a concerned Nepali citizen", one protester spoke to the sentiment that the social media ban was the government's attempt to stop people from posting about the "luxurious lives of the families and children of corrupt politicians and civil servants".
"The protest was intended, first and foremost, against the rampant corruption in government," they wrote.
What platforms were banned?
The ban — which has since been reversed — took effect last week.
Local media reported that the banned platforms included:
- Facebook
- Instagram
- WhatsApp
- YouTube
- Tencent
- Snapchat
- Pinterest
- X
TikTok and Viber were not banned.
Why did Nepal's government ban social media?
The platforms listed above were blocked after the social media companies missed the deadline to register under the Nepalese government's new regulations.
"We gave them enough time to register and repeatedly requested them to comply with our request," Communications and IT Minister Prithvi Subba Gurung said last week.
"But they ignored, and we had to shut their operations in Nepal."
A communications ministry official told Reuters that TikTok, Viber, WeTalk, Nimbuzz and Poppo Live had registered.
Nepal's government said the regulations were to combat social media users creating fake profiles to spread hate speech and fake news, commit fraud, and other crimes.
ABC with Wires
