The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) Nepal Compact which can be downloaded from https://mcanp.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Millennium_Challenge_Compact.pdf is being discussed at large these days and I personally appreciate all the concerns that have surfaced, both in social media and mainstream media. We live in a democracy wherein people and people’s representatives should discuss and debate matters of national interest, but I believe our debates should be based on facts and evidence. With this article, I hope to provide some facts and clarify specific concerns to help the public understand the Compact better.

KATHMANDU, Jan 16: Nepali parliament must amend the Information Technology Bill (IT Bill) to bring into line with international standards and ensure that the law is not used to criminalize the peaceful exercise of the right to freedom of expression, Amnesty International stated in a press release on Thursday.

Social media has taken over the world like deadly virus. Social media was built to create opportunities for people to bridge communication gap and connect with people all over the world. But now it has become the reason for the communication gap. New research has shown it could be having the opposite effect and leaving people more and more isolated.

KATHMANDU, Jan 8: Sajha Party on Wednesday urged the government to withdraw the controversial Information Technology Bill.

KATHMANDU, Jan 6: A bill, which is on the verge of endorsement by the lower house of parliament, may pave the way for the government to shut down social media sites at any time and under any pretext, according to experts.

UNITED STATES, Jan 1: Revelers around the globe are bidding farewell to a decade that will be remembered for the rise of social media, the Arab Spring, the #MeToo movement and, of course, President Donald Trump. A look at how the world is ushering in 2020:

British singer Ed Sheeran has announced that he is taking a break from music and social media.

Being the subject of discussion on a Facebook post of someone I didn’t even know too well was amusing at first but it quickly became a source of much anguish and hurt when people took to name calling and caste discrimination.

It's the festival of lights and scores of Bollywood celebrities thronged the social media on Sunday while extending out Diwali wishes to their fans and followers across the world. Megastar Amitabh Bachchan wished everyone with monochrome throwback pictures with Jaya Bachchan and daughter Shweta Bachchan Nanda lighting 'Phuljhadi'.

NEW DELHI, Oct 22: India’s government asked Facebook Inc on Tuesday to help it decrypt private messages on its network, citing national security requirements in a court hearing on privacy rights on social media platforms.

BIRENDRANAGAR, Oct 19: On March 25, 2019, chief minister of Karnali Province, Mahendra Bahadur Shahi said browsing social media during office hours will be banned in government offices of Karnali.

KATHMANDU, Oct 13: Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Nepal, 23 years after the last visit by a Chinese President, has kept social media users busy for weeks. Opinions of the general public, as well as experts started flooding as the government started preparing for President Xi’s visit.

On the lead up to the Constitution Day and the day itself last week, as cynics on social media were jeering at the government’s appeal to people to mark the day by wearing national flag emblazoned t-shirts, my contemplation  was on what the press and intelligentsia would say about the constitution that turned four on September 20, 2019.  There were two stark responses: outright ambiguous and dismissive.

KATHMANDU, Sept 16: Nepal chapter of Accountability Lab has shortlisted five government officials as part of its annual event to honor honest government employees.

Actor Johnny Depp defended his recent advertisement with luxury fashion and beauty brand Dior which was taken off air after it was subjected to backlash on social media.

KATHMANDU, Sept 9: Social media has become a new avenue for people to express their feelings without being judged or ostracized by others. Particularly, the 'confession' pages of some social media platforms are widely being used by the young people in Nepal. People express their feelings to a large group of unknown members. And many provide feedback and advice on such anonymous posts.

If you haven’t heard it, here’s some bad news: The black and white worldview is back. Like all inestimable things, the extent of its spread cannot be quantified with precision. But a bird’s-eye view of opinions voiced in current-day Nepal certainly indicates that it is widespread, and already difficult, if not impossible, to contain.

ABUJA – In June, Senegalese President Macky Sall’s brother, Aliou Sall, resigned from his post as the head of a state-run savings fund, following public outrage over allegations (which he denies) that he was involved in corrupt oil and gas deals. That outrage was expressed via social media and on the streets of Dakar. But it was investigative journalism, carried out by the BBC, that triggered it, highlighting traditional media’s enduring power to effect change.

My day, like yours I’m going to assume here, starts in bed scrolling through Instagram or Facebook. For half an hour (on a good day, that is) before I get out of bed to go to the kitchen to make a strong cup of coffee, I consume endless posts on food, travel, love, and rituals that sometimes make me happy but more often than not fill me with wistful longing. And that’s really not a good mindset to start my day with. On bad days (days when I’m feeling particularly lazy or unmotivated), social media takes up an hour of my time in the morning, sometimes even more.

Anyone critically following views and opinions peddled by media in Nepal, including social media and major news media, must have sensed this. The information landscape is flooded with half-information and misinformation. Emotion prevails. Reason has taken the backstage. It is easy during such times to lose foresight and context. The costs of decisions made during periods of half-information can be very high and irrevocable.

KATHMANDU, Aug 31: Press Council Nepal has drafted a Journalists Code of Conduct that allows surveillance by the media watchdog body over the personal social media accounts of journalists.

BIARRITZ, Aug 25: France said it was optimistic that U.S.-based social media platforms including Facebook and Snapchat would still sign a pledge to fight online hate speech despite a last-minute delay.

KATHMANDU, Aug 22: The Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation, in an attempt to engage with the people far and wide, has directed its subordinate bodies to make the utmost use of social media.

Where Do People Spend More Time on Social Media

KATHMANDU, Aug 12: The government has asked the people to promote the logo of Visit Nepal Year (VNY) 2020 through their social media profiles.

SAN FRANCISCO, July 26: Twitter Inc (TWTR.N) posted a better-than-expected second-quarter revenue on Friday and an uptick in daily users who see advertisements on the site, driven by changes to show users more relevant content.

Instagram has been growing rapidly since its launch in 2010. With one billion monthly active users, it has left behind competitors like Twitter and Snapchat by regularly coming up with new features and evolving fast. The Facebook-owned company is the go-to social media site for many, especially youngsters, because of its simplicity and visual appeal. But with so much content, how are people choosing what and who to follow?

Neymar posted a video featuring himself in a Barcelona shirt on social media on Saturday, raising more speculation that the Paris St Germain forward might return to his former club, but his public relations company said he would show up in Paris on Monday.

KATHMANDU, June 25: A woman in her final semester of a Master's degree program decided to do IELTS course as she was thinking of going abroad for higher studies. After a few days at the IELTS class, an idea suddenly clicked her mind – why not take help of the internet to find supporting materials to hone her command in English.

According to the Reuters Institute Digital News Monitor, Australians are among the least avid readers of news sources in the world. In the 2019 survey, only 52 percent of Australians said they checked the news more than once a day, compared to 85 percent in Sweden, 78 percent in Turkey and 67 percent in the UK.

Camila Cabello says she often goes off the social media grid to concentrate on her well being. The 22-year-old singer said such breaks help her stay true to what matters in life.

Selena Gomez says she has put a cap on spending time on social media as the singer believes the obsession with apps has gone out of control. The 26-year-old said she used to regularly engage with her fans on Twitter and Instagram but has pulled back because they started to "depressed".

Your daily dose of missed important news of the day.

WASHINGTON, June 2: The State Department is now requiring nearly all applicants for U.S. visas to submit their social media usernames, previous email addresses and phone numbers. It’s a vast expansion of the Trump administration’s enhanced screening of potential immigrants and visitors.

A democracy gives you the right to ask a question, filmmaker Anurag Kashyap said on Thursday after he was trolled for drawing Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's attention to a social media post threatening his daughter with rape because of his anti-establishment views.

KATHMANDU, May 22: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Wednesday said that its attention was drawn to the United States Ambassador to Nepal Randy Berry’s announcement to hold public interaction on social media.

DHANGADHI, May 19: Sabitri Ghimire is 21 years old and she already has three kids. A resident of Ghiya village of Tikapur Municipality – 3, she married a man who was a year elder than her when she was 16. “I was studying in ninth standard. I fell in love with a man from a neighboring village, and subsequently we got married,” she recaps.

COLOMBO, May 13: Sri Lanka on Monday temporarily blocked some social media networks and messaging apps, including Facebook and WhatsApp, after attacks on mosques and Muslim-owned businesses in the worst unrest since Easter bombings by Islamist militants.

You have a brilliant plan: Art that is unique to you, poems that have their own distinctness or food recipes that everyone on the planet just has to try. So you want to share these on social media and  have as many people as possible see your work.

Facebook Inc said on Wednesday it may have unintentionally uploaded email contacts of 1.5 million new users on the social media site since May 2016.

KATHMANDU, April 13: At a time when the government has been advocating for bringing the social network under tax net, the Office of the Auditor General has asked the government to impose tax on social networks.

KATHMANDU, April 5: A viral video of Miss Nepal audition, 2019 has divided social media users into two.

ISLAMABAD/NEW DELHI, April 2: Pakistani social media campaigner Hanzala Tayyab leads about 300 ultra-nationalist cyber warriors fighting an internet war with arch-foe India, in a battle that is increasingly sucking in global tech giants such as Twitter and Facebook.

MUMBAI/NEW DELHI, April 2: Two weeks after a suicide bombing in Kashmir in February killed 40 Indian policemen, a Facebook user called Avi Dandiya posted a live video in which he played a recording of a call purportedly involving India’s home minister, the president of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and an unidentified woman.

WELLINGTON, March 28: New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Thursday that she welcomed Facebook Inc’s decision to ban praise, support and representation of white nationalism and white separatism on its social media platforms.

Social media has become both a mitigating and magnifying force for divisions between people around the world. In recent days, we have seen the connection between growing online hate speech and hate crimes in the real world. The apparent inability of legal regimes to creatively deal with this growing trend demonstrates how fast technology has outpaced the law.

When I wake up I instinctively reach for my phone. I just mean to check the time and get out of bed. But before I know it, I have spent 30 minutes or more browsing through Instagram and Facebook and then watched a few videos on YouTube as well.

We are broadcasting our personal message to the real world and collecting likes, loves, emojis and wishes, instead of doing something meaningful

KUALA LUMPUR, March 9: A Malaysian was sentenced to more than 10 years’ jail and three others were charged over insults against Islam and the Prophet Muhammad on social media, police said on Saturday.

KATHMANDU, March 8: New proposed laws relating to social media use in Nepal are intended to stifle dissent and silence critical voices, say global and regional human rights groups.