In September 2025, large-scale anti-corruption protests and demonstrations took place all across Nepal, predominantly organized by Generation Z students and young citizens. Known as the "Gen Z Revolution" or "Third People's Movement", they began parallel to a nationwide ban on numerous social media platforms including YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, X, Facebook, and WhatsApp, and were motivated by the public's frustration with corruption and display of wealth by government officials and their families, as well as allegations of mismanagement of public funds. The movement expanded to encompass broader issues of governance, transparency, and political accountability, and became notable for the central role that social media and digital platforms played in organizing demonstrations and facilitating public deliberation during the political transition. The situation escalated, with police violence against children and hospitals, protests against public officials, and vandalism of government and political buildings taking place throughout the country.
According to a report by Himal Southasian, this event marked the highest single-day death toll from a public protest in Nepal's history.
On 9 September 2025, Prime Minister K. P. Sharma Oli, along with a few government ministers, resigned. On 12 September, Sushila Karki was appointed the interim prime minister of Nepal. The protests subsided by 13 September.
There were 76 deaths. According to the Nepali Army's official report, of those people, 41 were arson victims, 22 were protesters, 3 were police officers, and 10 were prisoners who were shot to prevent their escape.
Background
On 4 September 2025, the Government of Nepal ordered the shutdown of 26 social media platforms, including Facebook, X, YouTube, LinkedIn, Reddit, Signal, and Snapchat, for failing to register under the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology's new rules. According to People's Dispatch, the registration requirement had been motivated in part as a way to enable the enforcement of a new Digital Services Tax and stricter value-added tax rules on foreign e-service providers in an effort to boost revenue. However, critics alleged the shutdown was prompted by a social media trend highlighting nepotism, focusing on the privileges enjoyed by the children and relatives—nicknamed "Nepo Babies" or "Nepo Kids"—of influential political leaders.
According to People's Dispatch, the media platform ban had a significant impact on Nepalese political economy. Of the Nepalese GDP, 33% comes from remittances, with hundreds of thousands of exit permits being issued, alongside 20.8% youth unemployment. These remittances keep thousands of households afloat and pay import bills, and also indicate a lack of structural transformation in the domestic economy toward an employment-first model, pushing the youth into work in online spaces. Banning social media thus threatened youth livelihood.
Prior to the protests, the average Nepali citizen made US$1,400 per year, while families of the country's ruling elite displayed their wealth on social media. This "Nepo Kid" trend prompted significant public anger, particularly from Generation Z users. The median age of Nepal's population is 25, meaning that a large part of the population is in Gen Z, the age group that uses social media the most. This relatively young population, combined with the country's largely rural, rough terrain and substantial migration abroad, leads to Nepal having one of the highest social media usage rates in South Asia, about 48% of Nepalese using social media.
According to Himal Southasian, the protests were "a long time coming," fueled by a "long series of corruption scandals." involving the political and business establishment, which reinforced a "dismal view of the system." The report further noted that while Nepal has progressed since the civil war, the process has been "slow and tortuous," with public services remaining poor despite high tax burdens.
Digital coordination
Youth participatory groups, particularly Hami Nepal (a non-governmental organization), used Discord online communities (called "servers" in Discord) and Instagram channels as central organizing tools in the Gen Z protests. According to Green European Journal, the Discord server rapidly evolved into the movement's primary communications hub before the demonstrations. Volunteers organized dedicated channels for media outreach, legal assistance, medical response, fact-checking, documentation, regional coordination and newcomer support. Participants also collaboratively prepared protest guidelines, assigned volunteer responsibilities and discussed contingency plans for possible internet disruptions.
Shaswot Lamichhane, who established the Discord server and served as the moderator manager, was a recent graduate with a background in science and technology. He was involved in the technical coordination that underpinned these exercises in digital democracy, explaining that the discussions were meant to simulate a "mini-election", emphasizing that it was intended to gauge people's preferences rather than constitute a binding election or formal appointment process.
Organizers incorporated QR codes into protest banners so that photographs distributed by news articles would also direct viewers to the Discord server. They additionally coordinated outreach to approximately 140 social media influencers before the protests to broaden participation despite the government's social media restrictions. VPNs and posted flyers were also used to evade the social media ban.
According to several news outlets, messages in the Youth Against Corruption Discord channel advocated for violence against the Nepalese leadership. Tactical discussions on Discord included procurement and use of Molotov cocktails, suggestions to seize ammunition from police stations, and instructions on disabling airplane tires using acetylene gas. After police response led to 19 deaths, organizers in some Discord servers asked members to stop attending classes. They called for an indefinite closure of colleges and schools until the government accepted accountability for the fatalities. However, Green European Journal, based on an analysis of the archived Discord logs, reported that the server had initially functioned as the movement's principle coordination hub, with dedicated channels for logistics, legal support, medical response, media outreach and fact-checking. It also reported that moderators urged protesters to remain peaceful and attempted to regain control after violence broke out, but that the rapid influx of members following the police shootings overwhelmed moderation efforts and allowed increasingly violent messages to proliferate.
After Oli's resignation, the army's chiefs met with Hami Nepal and asked them to suggest nominees for an interim leader who would oversee national elections. On a Discord server with over 100,000 members, more than 10,000 users met virtually in a Discord channel to debate. The server had sub channels for constitutional law, fact-checking and candidate research. After discussions, several polls, and the use of sub-channels for fact-checking, the members settled on Sushila Karki.
Supporters of the process were seen by Al Jazeera English as viewing the online process as "a revolutionary counter to the traditional practice of politicians choosing leaders behind closed doors, which had displayed little transparency".
Sudan Gurung, founder of the youth organization Hami Nepal coordinated online discussions through Discord and served as a liaison between protest organizers and the Nepali Army during the transition period that followed Prime Minister K. P. Sharma Oli's resignation.
Using open-source intelligence (OSINT) methodology, the Nepalese media watchdog platform Media Kurakani analyzed over 60 TikTok videos to document how youth citizen journalism drove global media coverage during the demonstrations. As police responded with force on 8 September 2025, protesters livestreamed unedited smartphone footage and created English-language videos directly appealing to international outlets—including CNN, the BBC, The New York Times, Al Jazeera, and Sky News—demanding media attention as it is.
Although major global outlets initially reported the events primarily as a reaction to the government's social media ban, Gen Z activists conducted an online campaign targeting foreign journalists to correct the framing. Demonstrators asserted that the primary drivers of the movement were systemic government corruption, political nepotism, and police brutality, prompting international outlets to update their coverage accordingly. Digital appeals directed at international human rights bodies also contributed to public statements from the United Nations calling for transparent investigations into police conduct.
Timeline
8 September
Large gatherings took place in Kathmandu, particularly at Maitighar Mandala and around the federal parliament building, New Baneshwor, with tens of thousands of participants. The protests were originally organized as a peaceful rally by Hami Nepal, an NGO whose website highlights earthquake relief projects. Anil Baniya, one of the protest organizers from Hami Nepal, said the government cracked down on the protesters after some protesters began to climb the walls of the parliament complex and others threw stones. Baniya stated that what began as a peaceful protest was hijacked by "external forces and political party cadres" but that regardless, the government should not have responded to stones being thrown with live ammunition from the armed police. The Straw Hat Pirates' Jolly Roger flag from the manga series One Piece was used by some protesters, in similar fashion to the 2025 Indonesian protests.
Emerging as a decentralized movement, the protest grew and evolved to a movement with no formal leadership, individuals joined voluntarily in opposition to corruption and the social media ban. The demonstrations escalated when protesters attempted to enter the Federal Parliament of Nepal, leading security forces to respond with tear gas, water cannons, rubber bullets, and live ammunition. Video Geolocation published in the evening showed numerous victims killed in front of the parliament building. Victims were seen lying inanimate on the ground, many with serious or fatal wounds to the head and torso, many wearing school uniforms. Videos showed victims with their faces blown off. An expert identified bullets fired as coming from a lightweight 7.62x51mm automatic rifle. The Kathmandu District Administration Office imposed a curfew in parts of the capital near government buildings. However, protests continued.
The confrontations resulted in at least 19 people killed and more than 347 people injured. Seventeen of those protesters were killed in the capital. The National Human Rights Commission called on authorities not to use excessive force and to "show restraint in handling the protests."
In the evening, the government lifted the ban on social media platforms. Home Minister Ramesh Lekhak resigned and had his passport seized. A curfew was imposed in several major cities including Kathmandu, Birgunj, Bhairahawa, Butwal, Pokhara, Itahari, and Damak. Following this, protests for the complete dissolution of parliament began. This was primarily caused by the initial government response to the original protests.
9 September
Prime Minister K. P. Sharma Oli began the day with a call to all parties to cease violent action, but he did not respond to the corruption allegations. Then he directed his Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist–Leninist) ministers not to resign their posts and resigned his own office. Afterwards, Oli fled to an army barracks outside of Kathmandu Valley as per his interview in Kantipur's fireside. Videos surfaced of him escaping in a helicopter, with rumors of a potential escape to India or Dubai. There were conflicting reports on whether President Ram Chandra Paudel resigned as well, as the Nepalese Army denied reports of Paudel's resignation. Despite this, protests continued nationwide. Protestors set fire to many government buildings: part of Singha Durbar, the administrative headquarters of Nepal; the adjacent building of the Supreme Court of Nepal; the president's residence at Sital Niwas; the prime minister's residence at Baluwatar; and the headquarters of the Communist Party UML. Multiple reports allege that Nepali Army commander Ashok Raj Sigdel advised Oli to resign in order for the Army to restore peace.