The Nepali Digital Subaltern Counterpublics: Making Sense of Information Ecology at the Juncture of Global Power Competition

This research examines the various ways in which social media infrastructures were used by Nepali digital subaltern counterpublics to provide meaning to the local and global injustices. The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) and Nepal (2017–2022) provides an exemplary case of global funding that underwent controversies and debate until it was ratified by the Parliament of Nepal in 2022 chiefly due to varied and contentious interpretations of the MCC Nepal policy and its implementation. I present the contentious social media posts from X that interpreted MCC's funding as having brutal ramifications and neocolonial implications. This research thus calls on us to engage with the broader polyphony of voices emerging at the border of global power and competition to understand the information ecology of funding, aid, and global public policies.