Nepal Telecom Authority Blocks Over 200,000 Websites and Apps for Online Betting and Illegal Financial Transactions

Kathmandu. Nepal Telecommunications Authority has blocked more than two hundred thousand websites and apps involved in online betting and illegal financial transactions.

The government had included the issue of preventing online betting and fraud (scamming) in its one hundred agendas related to governance reform issued on Chaitra 13. Point 42 of the agenda states, 'The Ministry of Communications and Information Technology will block betting apps and related websites within 24 hours.'

In accordance with that decision, all betting websites operating in Nepal at that time were blocked. Even after these websites are blocked, new ones continue to open under new names. The authority stated that this year, since the FIFA World Cup was held, another two hundred twenty-three thousand five hundred sixty-eight such apps and websites have been blocked.

The authority has expedited action after the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers also showed special interest, fearing that the use of such betting apps might increase during the World Cup. The authority has also formed a separate task force for this.

According to Om Prakash Mahato, Assistant Director and Engineer at the Telecommunications Authority, who is part of the task force, during the World Cup, representatives of Internet Service Providers (ISPs) were kept at the authority itself, and work was done to block such websites.

Assistant Director Mahato stated that with the cooperation of ISPs, the URLs on which such websites operate are blocked. According to him, it is difficult to find so many websites one by one, so websites involved in betting and illegal financial transactions identified by various authorized institutions and bodies are blocked in cooperation with ISPs.

However, there is a challenge that as soon as one is blocked, another new website opens. In such a situation, as many new ones open, they must be blocked. For this, hunting is done using 'Threat Intelligence Tools'. He also mentioned that separate manpower has been arranged for this.

The authority has also stated that if anyone knows about such illegal websites, they can update it at the link github.com/NTA-OPM.