GenZ protests against social media ban and elite corruption become mass uprising against state violence
~ Cristina Sykes ~
Soldiers are patrolling the streets of Kathmandu after protests against corruption and a sweeping social media ban escalated to open rebellion following the killing of 19 protesters. Parliament was stormed and torched on Tuesday (9 September) and politicians’ homes were vandalised, leading to the resignation of the prime minister.
On 5 September the government moved to outlaw 26 platforms, from TikTok to WhatsApp, under rules demanding registration and state oversight. Ministers cited hate speech, but for many it was an attempt to silence dissent. Two million migrant workers rely on it for contact with families.
Mostly Gen Z protesters carried books and banners reading: “Shut down corruption, not social media”. Their protest was fuelled by recent viral clips flaunting politicians’ children’s luxury lifestyles, in a country with about £1k annual income and 20 percent youth unemployment.
The events followed a similar pattern as the recent eruption in Indonesia. On 8 September police escalated from water cannons to live fire. At least 19 were killed, including students in uniform shot in the head and chest, with more than 100 wounded. One witness called it “state-sanctioned murder”.
Mass anger erupted as crowds torched party offices and the houses of leaders including Sher Bahadur Deuba and Pushpa Kamal Dahal, while curfews across Kathmandu failed to halt mass defiance. Statements from the streets stressed the revolt is about graft and elite impunity, not only censorship. One communiqué declared: “Parents wait terrified for children who’ll never return. Our streets are killing fields”.
Parliament and government buildings were torched, the prime minister and home minister have resigned, and the ban has been scrapped. The newly formed Safal Committee went further, calling the massacre of protesters “the first shot in a class war” and demanding disarmament of the police, dissolution of parliament and arming of the masses.