The Gaming App That Changed the Nepal Game

Kathmandu was burning. Government buildings and even the parliament were set on fire, more than seventy protesters had been killed, and Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli was forced to resign. For Nepal’s Generation Z, who had grown up watching 14 governments fall since 2008, the old politics had lost all credibility. Backroom deals, patronage networks and party hierarchies no longer offered answers. They wanted a new way to decide who should lead their country.

They found it in an unexpected place: Discord, the chat app more commonly used by gamers.

On the “Hami Nepal” server, in a channel called Youth Against Corruption, more than 10,000 young Nepalis joined a debate about who should guide the country through crisis. Another 6,000 watched via a mirrored livestream on YouTube. Students in Kathmandu argued with members of the Nepali diaspora in Melbourne, New York and London. The discussions were often raw, chaotic and at times naïve, but they were open to all.

After hours of debate, the participants made their choice: Sushila Karki, a seventy-three-year-old former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Karki was remembered for jailing a minister for corruption in 2012 and for resisting political interference in the judiciary. Her credentials carried weight, and on Friday she was sworn in as Nepal’s interim Prime Minister — the first head of government anywhere in the world to be chosen through a virtual poll on a gaming app.

Supporters hailed the experiment as more transparent and egalitarian than traditional political processes. Unlike the secretive negotiations among party elites, the Discord forum was visible and participatory. Anyone could nominate candidates and ask questions. As one law graduate, Regina Basnet, put it: “Many of us didn’t know what it meant to dissolve parliament or form an interim government. But we were asking questions, getting answers from experts, and trying to figure it out together.”

The risks, however, were immediately clear. Pro-monarchy groups tried to infiltrate the discussions. Rumours spread quickly, from doctored photos of protest leaders to false claims about their citizenship. At one point, a video of former King Gyanendra was recycled as evidence of royal involvement. To counter this, the organisers set up a dedicated fact-checking sub-room on Discord, where they debunked disinformation in real time.

Journalist Pranaya Rana, who publishes the Kalam Weekly newsletter, noted the promise and peril of the moment. “It is much more egalitarian than a physical forum that many might not have access to. Since it is virtual and anonymous, people can also say what they want without fear of retaliation. But there are also challenges, in that anyone could manipulate users by infiltration and multiple accounts.”

Veteran activist Padmini Pradhanang cautioned that expectations should be tempered. “These young people have only experienced kleptocracy. They have never seen true democracy or good governance.”

Still, the symbolism of the Discord poll was powerful. By the end of the week, young Nepalis had forced a prime minister to resign, seen parliament dissolved, and selected a new interim leader through their phones.

Nepal’s Gen Z had turned a gamer’s chatroom into a parliament. However fragile or improvised, the choice of a Prime Minister through Discord marked a world first in digital democracy.