What is Discord? The app Nepal’s Gen Z used to nominate a leader
Discord was launched in May 2015 by co-founders Jason Citron and Stanislav Vishnevskiy, who had previously developed social platforms for gamers.
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Following violent protests and a political collapse triggered by a government ban on social media, Nepali citizens have turned to Discord, a chat application best known among gamers, to select the country’s next interim leader. According to a report by The New York Times, more than 100,000 people gathered on the platform to fill the political vacuum.
After a series of online debates and polls, the group collectively agreed on one nominee: Sushila Karki, Nepal’s former chief justice. The movement is widely referred to as a Gen Z protest, as the majority of those involved are under the age of 28.
What is Discord and how does it work?
Discord was launched in May 2015 by co-founders Jason Citron and Stanislav Vishnevskiy, who had previously developed social platforms for gamers. Their goal was to create a chat service that enabled players to communicate with friends without leaving their games. This gaming-first approach allowed the platform to quickly gain traction, and by the end of 2016, it had more than 25 million users.
The platform’s popularity surged during the pandemic, particularly among Gen Z users, as its scope expanded far beyond gaming. Communities began creating servers focused on a wide range of topics, transforming Discord into a broad communication hub.
Today, servers on Discord function as large community spaces, offering multiple communication channels for text, audio, and video. The platform also provides features such as screen sharing, streaming, and extensive moderation tools. By default, one Discord server can host up to 500,000 members, although only 250,000 can be active at any given time.
How Nepal’s Gen Z activists used Discord to nominate an interim PM
After the government’s social media ban fuelled nationwide unrest and political breakdown, more than 100,000 Nepali citizens converged on Discord to nominate a candidate for interim leadership. Heated discussions and polls within the chat groups eventually converged on one choice: Sushila Karki, the former chief justice of Nepal.
The initiative was spearheaded by the civic group Hami Nepal, whose organisers later met with army chiefs. According to reports, the military asked them to propose a nominee for interim leadership, further underscoring Discord’s unlikely role as a substitute Parliament during the crisis.
