A day after police killed 19 young protesters and injured more than 400, the government has lifted its controversial ban on social media platforms.

The Cabinet had decided late Monday to revoke the ban, which had sparked widespread unrest and triggered nationwide demonstrations led by Generation Z youths.

Following Monday’s Cabinet meeting, Communications Minister Prithvi Subba Gurung had said the process for restoring social media would start immediately.

On Tuesday, Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli resigned following a wave of violence that saw protesters vandalise Parliament, torch leaders’ residences, and storm government offices. Demonstrations spread across multiple cities after Monday’s bloody crackdown in Kathmandu.

Internet Service Providers, however, said they had not yet received a formal directive from the regulator. They began restoring access based on the minister’s statement.

“Ban on all the listed social media platforms has been lifted,” confirmed Sudhir Parajuli, president of the Internet Service Providers Association of Nepal. He said providers started unblocking Domain Name System (DNS) servers on Monday evening, but warned it could take time for services to resume fully.

Radhika Aryal, secretary at the Communication Ministry, also confirmed via text message that the ban was completely removed.

The ban, announced on August 25, had ordered 26 platforms—including Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, YouTube, and X—blocked for failing to register with Nepali authorities under the Directive on Regulating the Use of Social Media, 2023.

The Nepal Telecommunications Authority enforced the ban last Wednesday after the one-week registration deadline expired. Officials said platforms must designate a compliance officer, a grievance officer, and a local contact person, and agree to content moderation provisions before operating in Nepal.

But global platforms refused, saying the law’s requirements—especially on content filtering—were too restrictive. “They were waiting for clear legislation before agreeing to register,” one industry insider told the Post.

The move to lift the ban came amid public outrage and mounting international scrutiny after videos of police firing on unarmed students spread online, despite the blackout.

Social media dominates Nepal’s internet traffic, accounting for nearly 80 percent of total use. According to government data, the country has 2.97 million internet subscribers. Data Reportal’s 2024 figures show 13.5 million active Facebook users in Nepal, 10.85 million Messenger users, 3.6 million Instagram users, 1.5 million LinkedIn users, and 466,000 X (formerly Twitter) users.

Nepal has a track record of imposing and reversing platform bans. TikTok was blocked in November 2023 for allegedly harming “social harmony,” but reinstated in August 2024 after parent company ByteDance pledged compliance. Telegram, banned in July 2024 over fraud and money laundering concerns, has since applied for registration.

This time, however, the sudden reversal comes not through negotiation with tech companies but under pressure from the streets.