From Expression to Expulsion: Digital Public Spaces as Theatres of Operations in Nepal

Abstract

On 2 May 2016, Robert Penner, Canadian national residing in Nepal with a working visa, was arrested and then deported to Canada and his visa being cancelled. Based upon an analysis of the documentation related to his arrest and expulsion, this article analyses the articulation of different operations of control. A chain of public interventions and governmental actions makes the substance of the management of digital expression in Nepal and this has to be analysed with tools from media studies and science and technology studies. We present different operative regimes: Twitter accounts and discussions, police action and arrests, and court petitions. We analyse how operational levels are connected and how their interconnections lead to the criminalisation of one individual, most notably through the reformulations of the accusations by different groups of people via different devices. This in turn shows how specific technical interventions determine the control of the public space. These analyses then add to the debate upon the ‘digital public sphere’ by offering a critique of its spatial metaphor from a view focused on its performative stakes—public spaces not as sites of discussion, but as theatres of operations.