The Government of Nepal imposed a ban on Chinese short-video application TikTok citing negative effects on social harmony, local media reports on Monday highlighted.

The decision to ban TikTok was taken during a cabinet meeting which took place earlier in the day.

The Nepal government said that a large section of the society criticized TikTok for encouraging a tendency of hate speech, a Kathmandu Post report stated.

However, it is still unclear as to when the ban will come into effect.

Rekha Sharma, the minister of Communications and Information Technology of Nepal was quoted by The Himalayan Times as saying, "The decision to ban TikTok will be implemented shortly, but no specific deadline has been set."

The order to ban TikTok comes days after the Nepal government made it mandatory for social media platforms such as Facebook, X, YouTube, TikTok and others to set up their offices in the country.

In the wake of increasing number of complaints about absence of companies' representatives in Nepal which made it difficult for authorities to address users' concerns even to remove objectionable content from the platforms, the decision was taken.

All social media platforms operating in Nepal must now set up offices or designate a representative in Nepal within three months of the directives coming into effect.

These companies also have to mandatorily register their social media platforms with the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology.

The failure to comply with the conditions may result in the ministry shutting down platforms that lack proper registration within the Nepalese jurisdiction.

It may be noted that TikTok, owned by Chinese tech giant ByteDance was banned in India on June 29, 2020 over national security issues.

Soon after its launch in September 2016, the app became an instant success in India was among the biggest markets outside China and in 2019, the platform was the most downloaded app in India on Android platform.