The government of Nepal has proposed a new Information Technology Bill, 2075 (2018) which aims to replace the Electronic Transaction Act (ETA). The bill has been claimed by the government to address long-standing concerns related to IT management. However, civil society activists criticise the bill as stifling the growth of the emerging internet and technology industry. The critics of the bill are worried about the vague language in the provisions of the draft legislation that may act as red-tape for the data-based companies. Note that the bill is in Nepali, and this post is based on a translation of Nepal's Information Technology provided to us by lawyer Babu Ram Aryal. Registration of social networks; rationale missing It is under the Section 91(1) of the proposed Act that government has introduced the requirement of registration such that “any person who wants to run social network has to register in the Department pursuant to this Act”. The proposed provisions related to registration are needed to be scrutinized before their introduction as they can potentially prohibit the operation of a social network operator. In the absence of a definition of the term “social networks”, mandating the registration for an ambiguous category of social media platforms will lead to uncertainty during the implementation. No rationale has been provided under the provision for the requirement of registration of a social network operator. Without rationale, a registration requirement is likely to increase the cost of compliance and hamper flexibility of operations of such social network operators, particularly…
