The 2025 Nepalese Gen Z Protests: How New Technology Bolsters and Undermines Global Democracy
Edited by Morgan Pustilnik, Jordan Collinson, Owen Andrews, and Sarah Ahmad
In the midst of fire, gunshots, and chaos, Nepali Gen Z youth successfully ousted Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli. The prime minister’s resignation followed widespread anti-corruption protests that erupted after the government’s controversial shutdown of 26 social media platforms in early September. Using the messaging platform Discord, activist groups—such as Hami Nepal—coordinated and mobilized protesters. After the prime minister’s resignation, the army’s chiefs asked Hami Nepal’s Discord organizers to decide on a potential nominee for interim prime minister. After numerous video calls, polls, and discussions, the Discord server settled on the former Chief Justice, Sushila Kariki. Gen Z citizens from around the world are following in Nepal’s footsteps and using technology to enact political change. The 2025 Nepalese Gen Z protests marked the beginning of a new, exciting, and yet unsettling future of democratic organizing. Rapid advances in communication methods, social media, and artificial intelligence prompt us to examine how technology can both enhance and undermine global democratic processes.
Platforms like Discord, TikTok, and Reddit serve as the primary means of communication for Gen Z activists. The Nepalese protests began after the government banned 26 social media apps under the guise of sovereignty, regulation, and independence. However, Gen Z believed the ban was in response to the “Nepo Baby” TikTok trend, which highlighted the superfluous lifestyles of politicians’ children. Hami Nepal’s Discord channel, “Youths Against Corruption,” served as a point of contact for sharing protest tips, information, and coordination efforts. After the prime minister resigned, the server hosted debates with over 10,000 participants. The public nature of the server made it internationally accessible, allowing people from all over the world to tune in and be inspired. Democracy is not only a set of institutions but also a verb—an ongoing action sustained by collective voices and actions. As such, a platform primarily used for gaming, Discord, evolved into an inclusive, accessible, and democratic discussion forum. As 23-year-old content creator Sid Ghimire states, “The Parliament of Nepal right now is Discord.”
Additionally, TikTok bridged the divide between Gen Z in the Global North and Global South by “de-exotifying” Nepalese youth. Even if it is unconscious, Western citizens are biased towards people in the Global South, fetishizing them as primitive and exotic. However, Nepalese youth created TikToks dancing to international trends, thus fighting against stereotypes. With over 14,500 likes, the top comment of one such video states, “Gen Z is literally the same everywhere it’s crazy.” Accordingly, the use of international trends demystifies objectified populations and fosters greater unity among young people worldwide. It invites Gen Z youth from other countries to feel inspired and take wisdom from Nepal’s democratic methods.
Similarly, other cultural motifs used in the protests transcended barriers between youth. For example, Gen Z protestors around the world are using the Jolly Roger flag from the hit manga (and Netflix live-action) One Piece. The trend started in Nepal, Indonesia, and the Philippines, but soon spread to Madagascar, France, and Morocco. Rapid-fire communication methods such as TikTok and Discord allow young people to share similar problems in their countries, making them feel more united and less alone.
However, unfiltered public discussion forums, such as the Discord server, can undermine democratic practices in several key ways. The sheer size of the server makes it difficult to monitor and organize debates, streams of thought, and participants. While polls make it easier to gauge consensus, they do not ensure that everyone’s opinions are heard and discussed. Furthermore, the public nature of the server leaves it wide open to infiltration and surveillance. I can speak to this on a personal level. A human rights organization I worked with used Discord as its primary communication method. Eventually, we realized that our server had been infiltrated by the conservative-extremist group, Moms for Liberty. The infiltration was especially dangerous, as many of our members were LGBTQ+ and shared personal information on the server.
On that note, nation-states use technology for sinister, anti-democratic ends. In her book, This Is How They Tell Me The World Ends, former New York Times journalist Nicole Perlroth examines the increasingly dangerous world of cyberwarfare and hacking. In one of her chapters, Perlroth explains the underground zero-day exploit market in Argentina. Zero-day exploits are tools used to take advantage of unaddressed security vulnerabilities in software, hardware, or firmware. They are especially sought after by governments for national security reasons. As such, young Argentinians, well-educated but disillusioned by poverty, sell their exploits to anyone willing to pay a high enough price. Zero-day exploits are used to enact massive financial and democratic devastation. For example, Russia’s 2017 cyberattack against Ukraine, using an exploit allegedly developed by the NSA, spread around the world, eventually causing $10 billion in infrastructure, data, supply chain, and other types of damage. Over the years, there have been many cyberattacks, including North Korea’s WannaCry and Russia’s interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Cyberhacking and social media have been used to threaten democracies, like Ukraine, and spread rapid misinformation and disinformation.
Moreover, rapid advances in artificial intelligence have both undermined and supported democracy in various ways. For example, Lesan AI, a small, narrow-AI company, utilizes machine translation systems to translate internet materials into several Ethiopian languages. Their mission is to fight fake news by “enabling people to access and thoroughly understand content from various sources from across the globe.” However, AI is used to suppress and condemn political dissidents. For example, Hindu nationalists spread a screenshot of a pornographic deepfake of Muslim-Indian journalist Rana Ayyub on various social media platforms and doxxed her. Ayyub is a critic of the Hindu nationalist Prime Minister, Narendra Modi. As such, far-right Hindu nationalists sought to subdue her voice and prevent her from participating in democracy.
Furthermore, AI is used by countries around the world, including the United States and China, to surveil people, such as China’s minority Uyghur Muslims. For instance, in 2019, China tested an emotion-revealing facial recognition camera system on Uyghurs in the Xinjiang province. More recently, alleged Chinese government operatives used ChatGPT to write proposals for surveillance tools, including one that examines the police records and movements of Uyghurs and “high-risk” people. Similarly, the Trump Administration’s Department of Homeland Security admitted to using AI software to examine social media posts from migrants applying for visas and green cards. The AI surveillance tools would analyze posts for “extremist” rhetoric and “antisemitic activity.”
Technology is both a blessing and a curse for democracy. While it increases communication between young people across the globe, it is also used to subvert and supplant democratic processes, such as fair elections, free speech, and political freedom. Overall, rapid advances in AI, communication methods, and social media are ushering in a new era of protest movements and organizing efforts. We must closely monitor these technologies to ensure they are not deployed for nefarious ends, namely surveillance and cyberhacking.