Historians have pointed out that the reason for Nepal’s political dysfunction is that although it is South Asia’s oldest nation state, it is also the newest to open up to the world.
Until 1950, Nepal was closed to outsiders. You needed to be in the really good books of the Rana rulers to be invited in. The country was a medieval, feudal time capsule. And when it did unlock its doors to the outside world, it took time for Nepalis to adjust to global trends and influences.
Within 10 years of opening up, Nepal had its first and short-lived tryst with democracy. King Mahendra argued, in fact, that Nepalis were too illiterate and backward, and not yet ready for Western-style parliamentary democracy. What he really meant was that Nepal was not big enough for him and B P Koirala, the first elected prime minister.
In the 30 years of Panchayat since, after decades of democratic decay, conflict, and transition, political and press freedom was put back into deep freeze. Not until 1990 did we win back those freedoms.
An upheaval of similar magnitude is now rocking Nepal with the rapid inroad of information technology. This revolution is happening at lightning speed, much faster than changes since 1950. And once again, Nepalis are having to adapt to a hyper-real world of social media platforms, viral videos, disinformation and an alternate universe of premeditated fakery.
At the beginning of the pandemic, there were about 8 million Nepalis with Facebook accounts. Today, the figure is said to be close to 12 million. There are millions more posting videos on TikTok. Thousands of YouTube channels with sensational graphics vie for audience and Adsense revenue. Twitter trails behind, but has a following among opinion-makers and shakers. It is the preferred medium for political influencers and the media, and this amplifies its impact.
The content on these platforms is riding on the spread of mobile telephony. Nearly all Nepali households now own at least one handheld device, and about 94% of individuals own a mobile – and 60% of them now are smart-phones. The number of mobile cellular subscribers is now 43 million – more than the country’s total population.
Among the 35% of responders in a survey in 2019 who said they use the Internet, most used mobile data to get online. Less than 20% were on laptops or PCs.
As Internet speed increases, cellular towers bring more parts of the country under at least 3G coverage, we can expect to see an even greater consumption of social media platforms – especially video-based content like YouTube and TikTok.
The fact that 15% of Nepalis work, study or live abroad means that connectivity has allowed them to stay in close touch – a fact that was of vital importance during the pandemic.
Although most online content can be classified as ‘entertainment’, there is also an element of ‘politics as entertainment’ as Nepal’s ruling parties jostled for power in the past two years.
This migration of eyeballs from the so-called mainstream to digital media is already having a profound impact on how Nepalis connect with each other. The influence of the legacy media in public opinion-making is now replaced by non-journalistic content providers. This has transformed how Nepalis access information, in how they communicate with each other, how society functions, and ultimately in how Nepal is governed.
To be sure, these media trends are not unique to Nepal. The reach of Big Tech globally has transformed the relationship between rulers and the ruled. It has also warped the democratic process as disinformation and the propagators of ‘alternate truths’ manipulate the medium to stoke populism and intolerance.
We have seen increasing evidence of what this migration of eyeballs from mainstream media to video portals means for news consumption. The filtering mechanism of journalism has now been bypassed so that raw, unverified, or deliberately made-up information sways public opinion. Algorithmic selection means that user biases are reinforced with increasingly radical content.
It is not all negative. Internet activism has shown that it is a powerful medium to mobilise support for causes like caste- and gender-based violence, citizenship issues, and for making national heroes out of high achievers like Kulman Ghising, Sanduk Ruit or Mahavir Pun.
But, as the organised disinformation campaign against the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) shows, it can also be an effective way to interfere in the political process, whip up populist hyper-nationalism, stifle rational voices and undermine economic progress. The preponderance of fake news about the Americans planning to build military bases in Nepal has polarised politics and society, even dividing families, friends and colleagues.
With elections around the corner, this phenomenon of demonising political opponents through abuse of social media will have far-reaching consequences for our democracy. If countries with a long history of democracy and free press can have both so easily undermined, we in Nepal need to be on alert against such threats to our hard-won freedoms.
Disillusionment against Nepal’s established parties and distrust of politicians is at an all time high. They deserve it, but we cannot let that translate into disenchantment with the democratic process itself. Nepalis value democracy and harmony. We have pulled back from the brink many times before. It is time for the silent majority to speak up and drown out the fake and phoney in the cybersphere.
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