The popular social media platform has around a billion monthly users, though has consistently come under fire in recent years after claims it is in breach of data rules, as well as harbouring potentially harmful content it can show its younger audience. In a statement earlier this week, the minister for communications and information technology Rekha Sharma announced the ban.

She said: “The decision to ban [TikTok] was made today, and relevant authorities are currently addressing the technical issues.”

Rekha justified the decision through claims that the platform was consistently utilised to share content that “disturbs social harmony and disrupts family structures and social relations.”

The announcement was met by some criticism in the government, with the leader of the Nepali Congress party Gagan Thapa labelling the ban as an act against “freedom of expression”.

He took to X (formally Twitter) to bash the ban.

In a post made to the platform, he wrote: “Regulation is necessary to discourage those who abuse social media, but shutting down social media in the name of regulation is completely wrong.”

TikTok had previously come under fire in the US when former president Donald Trump tried to ban the app from the country in 2020 on the grounds of national security.

However, through a series of legal challenges, the policy never came to fruition and the platform remains readily available in the US.