Nepali TikTok users will need to wait a few days more to use the social media app despite the government lifting the ban.

On Thursday, the government lifted the TikTok ban after nine months.

“TikTok will resume once the company formally applies for company registration and starts working on the conditions set by the Nepal government,” said Gajendra Thakur, spokesperson for the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology.

“A meeting was held on Friday at the ministry with the TikTok vice president. The TikTok delegation has committed to accept all the government conditions,” said Thakur.

“We have received the Cabinet’s decision. We will now write to the Nepal Telecommunications Authority to allow TikTok after the company completes all the government-mandated processes.”

Only the authority can allow the resumption of service, according to directions from the communication ministry. The service providers need to wait for the authority’s notice for service to resume on their networks.

Pradip Paudyal, deputy director of the Nepal Telecommunications Authority, the telecom regulator, said they have yet to receive the ministry’s letter.

The government has given ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, a three-month deadline to comply with certain terms and conditions.

Responding to the government's decision to lift the ban, TikTok issued a statement on Friday saying the government had opened the door for economic opportunity for creators and would support enabling Nepali voices and creativity.

“We're pleased that TikTok has been unblocked in Nepal. We appreciate the government of Nepal's commitment to ongoing productive dialogue and recognise their care for the Nepali community's digital experience, " TikTok stated.

“The creativity and passion of our community have brought joy to households across Nepal and opened vital economic opportunities to incredibly talented creators and businesses. We're excited to be able to continue enabling Nepali voices and creativity as we work to support the success story of Nepal.”

On November 13, then-prime minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal-led government banned TikTok, citing its adverse effects on social harmony.

However, the KP Sharma Oli administration allowed TikTok to operate with several regulatory changes.

According to the conditions, TikTok, from now onwards, has to help promote Nepal's tourism, invest in digital literacy efforts, support and uplift Nepal's public education system and filter content on its platform.

Earlier, TikTok sent several letters to the Nepal government requesting the ban be lifted.

In the letter, TikTok said that the ban was causing financial losses to the company and the country.

The government restricted TikTok after introducing the ‘Directives on the Operation of Social Networking 2023’ in November last year.

The directives made it mandatory for social media sites such as Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), TikTok, and YouTube to open liaison offices in Nepal.

The government said the measure was introduced because an increasing number of people complained that the absence of the companies’ representatives in Nepal made it difficult for the authorities to address their users’ concerns and even remove objectionable content from the platforms.

Internet service providers said that TikTok accounts for nearly 40 percent of internet bandwidth consumption in Nepal. When it is banned, internet consumption does not decline as users switch to virtual private networks (VPN).

Before the ban, there were around 2.2 million TikTok users in Nepal.