Nepal Govt Prepared Guidelines for Social Media Management:
The government has prepared guidelines on social media management to make the networking and use of social media systematic and dignified. The government has made such a directive using the authority given by Article 79 of the Electronic Transactions Act, 2063 BS.
Since it is not possible to bring an Act, the government is going to prepare a directive by including the provisions in it. It will be able to communicate and regulate other systems such as Facebook, Twitter, Viber, WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn based on the Internet and information technology.
According to the directive, such social networks must be registered with the Department of Information Technology to operate in Nepal. The guideline states that there will be a period of three months to register the social networks that have been operating before the implementation of the directive.
Provision has been made for the Government of Nepal to ban the use of unregistered social media in Nepal. In addition, there is a provision to automatically cancel the registration in case of violation of the prevailing Nepali laws and directives of the registered social media.
If the government has instructed to remove information, facts or details that are against the law or public morality and ethics, such content will have to be removed from social media. Not only this, the security of social media operated in Nepal through the department will be tested every five years.
In addition, in accordance with the laws of Nepal, social media will have to provide encrypted information to the investigating officer in case of investigation of criminal offenses, secure the information or data required for the investigation, and help in compiling the information or data.
The Ministry of Communications and Information Technology also reserves the right to interpret any directive that may come into force as a matter of law.
