In Nepal, the line between connection and control blurred when the government banned 26 social media platforms. What followed was a youth-led uprising that revealed deep fractures in its fragile democracy. This article reflects on how digital tools can empower or silence, and why Nepal’s struggle offers lessons for a world wrestling with the politics of technology.

AI is reshaping our world—but not equally. This article explores how artificial intelligence amplifies existing global inequalities, concentrating benefits in the Global North while pushing environmental burdens and ethical risks onto the Global South. Drawing on concepts like digital colonialism and disparities in AI investment, it reveals how access without autonomy reinforces injustice—and calls for a more democratic and inclusive technological future.