Countering Digital Deception in Nepal’s Political Sphere

Nepal's recent Gen Z protests have shown both the power of social media to bring political changes in the country and the potential and the danger these platforms may bring to any country. A recent study conducted by Israel-based cyber research company Cyabra found that approximately one-third of social media accounts that helped fuel the movement were fake ones. Those fake accounts blended with authentic users, tagged hashtags, posted extreme content and interacted strategically with authentic account holders to expand their outreach. Though real youth voices first were motivated by non-violent demonstration against corruption, nepotism, and extravagance of leaders’ children, fake behavior from counterfeit accounts continued to push violent content with over 164,000 interactions and approximately 326 million global views. Computer-generated images, hashtags and propaganda posts kept the online conversations going, portraying young Nepalis as democratic guardians who sought to protest against police brutality and political unrest. Together with these imposter accounts, an epidemic of misinformation pushed the youths further. Nepalese media during the protest on September 8-9 were filled with unfounded news, videos, and rumors, such as the army overthrowing the government, monarchist plots, inflated casualty counts and staged videos of protesting at religious sites. In the meantime, average citizens, posting content with a view to warn others, unknowingly became fear spreaders. Experts pinpoint poor media literacy, belated official announcements, and institutional lack of preparedness as having allowed fertile ground for misinterpretation to take hold.