Jack Dorsey’s Bitchat Emerges as Critical Tool Amid Nepal’s Political Unrest

Nepal's political crisis has taken a deadly turn as tens of thousands of protesters flooded Kathmandu’s streets following government-imposed social media blackouts. Security forces responded with lethal force, leaving at least 19 dead and forcing Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli’s resignation. The censorship backfired spectacularly—downloads of Jack Dorsey’s decentralized messaging app Bitchat surged by 48,000 as citizens sought alternatives to blocked platforms like Facebook and X.

The protests, initially sparked by communication restrictions, revealed deeper societal fractures. Young demonstrators cited systemic corruption, elite nepotism, and vanishing economic opportunities as root causes. Viral footage showed crowds torching government buildings and leveraging peer-to-peer networks to coordinate under intermittent internet access. Bitchat’s Bluetooth-based architecture proved particularly resilient during network disruptions.