AI Disinformation Floods Nepal’s First Post-Protest Elections

As Nepal prepares to vote Thursday in its first national elections since last year’s deadly protests, the campaign landscape has become inundated with sophisticated AI-generated disinformation, presenting a growing threat to the country’s democratic process.

The September 2025 protests, which left 77 people dead and the parliament building in flames, were primarily led by tech-savvy youth frustrated by chronic unemployment and widespread corruption among the nation’s aging political establishment. Those protests, triggered by a government attempt to ban social media platforms, ultimately toppled the administration of four-time Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli.

Now, as the nation heads to the polls, political parties across the spectrum have embraced social media to promote their platforms and appeal to voters, particularly young Nepalis and first-time voters. However, experts warn that much of this online content is manipulated or completely fabricated.

“In a country where digital literacy is low, people believe what they see,” said Deepak Adhikari, editor of the independent fact-checking organization NepalCheck.

The scale of the challenge is daunting in a country where approximately 56% of the 30 million population is online. Facebook alone counts 14.8 million Nepali users, while Instagram has around 4.3 million and TikTok approximately 2.2 million, according to Internet Service Providers’ Association of Nepal. Even more striking, about 80% of Nepal’s total internet traffic flows through social media platforms.

“It is even hard for experts to figure out what is real and fake,” said Kathmandu-based technology policy researcher Samik Kharel, who described the pre-election period as a “digital battleground.” Kharel emphasized that Nepal lacks the expertise necessary to monitor the flood of machine-generated content now circulating widely.

The disinformation campaigns have grown increasingly sophisticated. Supporters of former Prime Minister Oli’s Marxist party have circulated AI-generated images claiming to show massive political rallies with over 500,000 attendees. Analysis by Nepali fact-checkers at TechPana revealed these images were created using OpenAI’s ChatGPT, while police reports indicated fewer than 5,000 people attended the actual events.

In another case, TikTok was forced to remove an AI-generated video that falsely showed Nepali Congress party leader Gagan Thapa urging voters to support a rival political faction.

The influence extends beyond Nepal’s borders. Ammaarah Nilafdeen of the US-based Center for the Study of Organized Hate noted that posts calling for the restoration of Nepal’s abolished Hindu monarchy have proliferated online, often “amplified by Hindu far-right supporters in India.” These external influences, she said, run counter to domestic demands for strengthening democratic institutions.

Nepal’s Election Commission acknowledges the widespread presence of hate speech and deepfake content, including videos created with easily accessible AI tools that show candidates insulting opponents or using profane language. Commission information officer Suman Ghimire called it “a concerning issue,” revealing that more than 600 cases have been referred to authorities, with approximately 150 currently under police investigation.

While the Commission has the power to impose fines or disqualify candidates, experts argue that the overwhelming volume of disinformation far exceeds their capacity to respond effectively.

“Candidates and people close to political parties not only compete to win, but also compete to spread misinformation,” said Basanta Basnet, editor-in-chief of news website Onlinekhabar, which collaborates with Nepal FactCheck to verify social media posts.

The stakes are particularly high in Nepal, where last year’s social media-organized protests used the Discord app to propose an interim leader. Their suggested candidate, 73-year-old former chief justice Sushila Karki, was subsequently appointed to guide the country toward the elections now taking place.

As Nepal navigates this critical democratic exercise, fact-checkers warn that unchecked misinformation could lead citizens to make ill-informed decisions, potentially undermining the very foundations of democracy that the 2025 protesters fought to defend.