Police Open Fire on Gen Z Protest in Kathmandu

Police in Nepal's capital opened fire Monday on demonstrators protesting a government attempt to regulate social media that blocked some of the world's largest platforms, including Facebook, X, and YouTube. At least 17 people were killed in Kathmandu and at least two others at protests elsewhere. The demonstrations have been called the "Gen Z" protests, and some of the Kathmandu protesters were still in their school uniforms, the Guardian reports.

• Rallies swept the streets around the Parliament building, which was surrounded by tens of thousands of people angry at authorities who said the companies had failed to register and submit to government oversight. At least 145 people were wounded, officials said. Protesters pushed through barbed wire and forced riot police to retreat inside the Parliament complex, the AP reports. "Stop corruption, not social media," the crowds chanted.

• The government is pursuing a broader attempt to regulate social media with a bill aimed at ensuring the platforms are "properly managed, responsible and accountable." The proposal has been widely criticized as a tool for censorship and for punishing government opponents who voice their protests online. About two dozen social networks that are widely used in Nepal were repeatedly given notices to register their companies officially in the Himalayan nation, the government said. Those that failed to register have been blocked since last week.
• Protester Sabana Budathoki tells the BBC that the social media ban was "just the reason" they gathered, but the main focus was on corruption. "We want our country back, we came to stop corruption," she says.
• The Kathmandu Post reports that Ramesh Lekhak, the country's minister of home affairs, resigned "on moral grounds" after Monday's protests.