When Algorithm Decides: Filtered Voices from Nepal

Key Insights

• Scale of Content Removal in Nepal: TikTok removed nearly 1.9 million pieces of content from Nepal in Q4 2025 alone. YouTube placed Nepal among the top 25 countries globally for removals despite its smaller digital footprint. Meta, the most-used platform in Nepal, publishes zero Nepal-specific enforcement data and maintains no local office or contact.
• Three Structural Gaps: Every finding points to the same three gaps: the transparency gap (platforms remove content at scale without publishing data to evaluate accuracy or equity), the language gap (automated systems were not trained on Nepali, Maithili, or Newari, but the consequences fall on Nepali creators), and the accountability gap (when something goes wrong, there is a form — and no one knows if it works).
• A Global Pattern, Not a Local Exception: Nepal is not an exception. Research across Africa, Latin America, and South Asia documents the same pattern: English-built systems deployed globally that consistently fail communities in the Global South.
• Concrete Asks for Platforms and Government: Platforms are asked to publish language-level enforcement data, create a real Nepal contact point, and invest in Nepali-language training data. Government is asked to require platform transparency, make registration mean accountability, and carefully distinguish regulation from removal.