Why did a social media ban, an act of censorship seen in many countries, cause such a uniquely violent explosion in Nepal? The answer is that this specific action was the perfect match for the specific tinder of grievances that had been piling up for years, making a political fire almost inevitable.
The tinder was the nation’s youth: a demographic that was simultaneously digitally native and economically disenfranchised. With a 20% unemployment rate, their frustration levels were already critically high. Unlike older generations, their social and political lives were intrinsically linked to online platforms. Social media was their public square, their community hall, and their soapbox.
The match was the ban itself, an act that was uniquely designed to ignite this specific pile of tinder. It was an authoritarian move that directly targeted the identity and primary mode of expression of the most discontented group in the country. It wasn’t just a policy; it was a direct cultural and political assault on them.
The resulting combustion was so powerful because the government’s action perfectly aligned with the people’s worst fears: that a corrupt, out-of-touch establishment wanted to render them not just poor, but also silent and powerless. The government didn’t just throw any match; it threw the one match that was guaranteed to set the whole nation ablaze.