The government has registered an information technology (IT) bill in the parliament with a provision requiring Facebook, Twitter, Viber and other social networking sites to register inside Nepal.
The bill prepared by the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology has a provision that requires even the existing social networking sites to register in Nepal once the law comes into force. The government will set a deadline for registration of the existing sites while the new ones will also have to be registered.
The bill has a provision that allows the government to instruct the sites to remove the posts made violating the laws.
The social networking sites will now have to open office in Nepal due to the mandatory provision requiring implementation of government instruction.
The government can instruct the sites to remove posts that threaten the country's sovereignty, territorial integrity, national security, national unity, independence, national interest, and inter-provincial relations. The sites can be punished for crime against the state if they do not remove such posts after instruction.
The sites will also need to remove posts that spread communal or religious hatred.
The bill also has some vague regulatory provisions that can be abused by the government. "One cannot post on the social media in a way that violates public decency and morality," the bill states. "Messages should not be spent with an intention of teasing, cheating, demeaning, deflating any person or spreading hatred against the person."
The government can also give instructions to remove posts that can be termed defamation and abuse as per the prevailing laws. Those who make such posts can be fined up to Rs 1.50 million, or jailed for five years or both.
The sites that do not remove posts even after government instruction can be jailed for up to three years or fined Rs 30,000 or both.
The bill envisions an IT department for registration and regulation of social networking sites in Nepal. It also has a provision for formation of an IT court. It has also proposed suspension of the existing Electronic Transaction Act.
The bill will become law once it is passed by both Houses of the federal parliament.
