In what can only be described as a failed autocrat’s gambit, the Nepalese government’s attempt to consolidate control by banning social media backfired in the most spectacular way possible. Instead of silencing dissent, the move amplified it, turning simmering public anger into a raging inferno of violence that has destabilized the nation.
The government’s strategy was based on a fundamental misreading of the political environment. It saw the symptom—online criticism—but ignored the disease. The disease was a sick economy that offered no future to its youth, with one in five unemployed. It was a political system riddled with the cancer of corruption and nepotism.
The public was already seething with a sense of injustice, fueled by the glaring inequality that defined their society. They saw a kleptocratic elite living in luxury while they faced a daily struggle for survival. This was not a population that could be easily intimidated into silence; it was a population desperate for a confrontation.
The social media ban was the government’s move, and it was a catastrophic one. It was a gambit that assumed the people’s anger was shallow and could be contained by censorship. Instead, the ban was seen as the ultimate proof of the government’s tyranny, providing the moral justification for the violent uprising that followed. The gambit failed, and the government is now paying the price.