The Ministry of Communication and Information Technology of Nepal has issued an order requiring all social media platforms to be registered in Nepal.
Based on this, the Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA) has instructed all network service providers to deactivate 26 platforms, including Signal, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, YouTube, and others.
To lift the ban and operate legally in Nepal, each platform must:
-
Register with the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology.
-
Appoint in Nepal:
- A Point of Contact
- A Resident Grievance Handling Officer
- An Officer responsible for monitoring compliance with self-regulation [1]
-
Submit an application in the prescribed format along with required documents, as per the Directives on Managing the Use of Social Media Networks (2080 B.S.). [2]
Reference:
[2] Directives for Managing the Use of Social Networks, 2023
One of the reasons I prefer Matrix even though anyone I know in real life uses Signal so I use Signal practically everyday but Matrix sparingly. Federated matrix servers. I worry how resilient Signal can be if enough countries ban it, not really confident in the US or EU countries or any countries long term for encrypted chat for the Signal Foundation, and also signing up with phone numbers. Phone number providers being another point of regulation
I don’t think signal devs are just going to sit around crying that signal got banned.
Probably go the route of tor browser and have signed installer distributed amongst multiple mirrors.
We’re still waiting. Everyone else has done this while Signal is getting left behind. It’s still effective at combatting anti-libre malware, WhatsApp and Discord.