KATHMANDU: Sophisticated AI-generated disinformation has flooded the election campaign in Nepal, which will vote on Thursday for the first time since deadly protests sparked by a brief ban on social media toppled the government.
The September 2025 protests were led by young, tech-savvy people angry about job shortages and flagrant corruption by an aging political elite.
Currently, political parties across political divides are using social media to promote their policies and are gaining support from voters, especially young people, with the number of people registering to vote for the first time rapidly increasing.
But experts and fact-checkers say some of the content is manipulated or outright fabricated.
“In countries where digital literacy is low, people believe what they see,” says Deepak Adhikari, editor of the Independent Nepal Check Team.
Samik Kharel, a Kathmandu-based technology policy researcher, described the landmark vote as a “digital battlefield” and warned that Nepal lacks the expertise to monitor the onslaught of machine-generated content.
“Even for experts, it’s difficult to tell what’s real and what’s fake,” Karel said.
He said around 80% of Nepal’s total internet traffic goes through social media platforms.
Internet analysis site DataReportal estimates that more than 56% of Nepal’s 30 million people are online, including 14.8 million Facebook users and about 4.3 million Instagram users. According to the Nepal Internet Service Providers Association, about 2.2 million people use TikTok.
“Disinformation remains the number one concern that could undermine the integrity of the electoral process,” said Ammara Niravdeen of the US-based Center for the Study of Organized Hate.
“Nepal…is grappling with the magnitude of the threat that disinformation poses to society and democracy as a whole.”
