It is a humid afternoon in Pokhara, and as a higher-secondary student develops a low-grade fever band musters the tool now fielding countless Diagnostic Questions about everyday life in Nepal: TikTok’s search bar. A search for “बुखार चाँडै कसरी घटाउने?” has created a deluge of cocky, bite-size clips. One creator simply rubs tulsi and ginger together until they coalesce into a paste, calling it a cure. Another advertises over-the-counter antibiotics without an office visit. Thousands of likes and comments offer a veneer of social proof, but there are no clinical sources. The scene is an emerging reality. (Browsing short-video search is a human experience that feels both instantaneous and local, but consumption is disarmingly low-friction; trust me when I tell you that veracity questions tend to get overshadowed.) In short, TikTok is being treated as a search engine, while the guardrails people have come to demand from traditional search are shaky, or absent.
The transition in Nepal is especially powerful because of its digital environment. Mobile connections are greater than the population, internet penetration more than half of inhabitants and a young median age pushes information discovery onto tiny screens. A video-first interface, a bold search box and on-screen nudges encourage users to search within the app, not the open web. And there is trust added with spoken Nepali, code-switching and familiar cultural cues. Responses come in faces, voices and demonstrations rather than text. The style punishes uncertainty; clarity, assuredness and speed are the order of the day. It does not naturally incentivize sourcing, nuance or uncertainty.
Health content displays the tension most visibly. Advice that either normalizes casual use of antibiotics or casts herbal mixtures as cures travels a long way in 30 seconds, but it delays proper care and risks creating antimicrobial resistance. Weight-loss and “detox” clips that guarantee over-the-top results while bypassing dietetics or mental-health implications. During the pandemic, national hotlines were flooded with questions and rumor control; that same appetite for rapid-fire, human-sounding answers now gets an outlet in short-video search. The same is true of money. Day-trading “systems,” Demat success formulas and crypto pitches aren’t living testimonials, all of which rely on the currency of novelty (and urgency). No one seems to bother about legal and regulatory realities, while naive moves can potentially backfire financially or mean penalties. It's helpful/outdated in civic life, where they alternate. Instructions pertaining to voter registration, renewal of driving licenses and the Nagarik app often miss essentials like having SIM card in the applicant’s name, proof of citizenship and authentication via one-time password leaving them at the mercy of ward office touts.
Inconsistencies are shown for the safety and DIY topics as well. Some earthquake videos correctly focus on “Drop, Cover, Hold On” and recommend staying away from windows and heavy items. Other alternatives are standing in a doorway or dashing outdoors, both themselves at risk of injury. Kitchen and electrical “hacks” can be fun, but they often flout basic safety rules. The underlying pattern in each is the same: clips that offer certainty, shortcuts and spectacle beat sober, source-linked guidance. Watch time, replays and fast comment activity are the currencies that push rank, so clips that get a reaction spike to the top.
This dynamic is enhanced by language and interface mechanics. Autocomplete suggestions and on-video prompts generally lean toward speed and certainty, with phrases like “instant cure,” “no doctor needed” or “quick profit.” Revelations about the share bazar are typically directed to sensational content, because exciting stories help attention. Old checklists might resurface for civic inquiries because they are still viewable, even if they’re out of date. The design doesn’t have to be evil to mislead; it just must prioritize engagement.
Platform rules and enforcement, too, operate at scale but are constrained by structural limits. Relevant? Provisions of the community standards prohibit harmful misinformation and our quarterly reports detail huge numbers of proactive removals, also in cases where it comes from Nepal. But millions of fresh clips come in every day, engineered for scrutiny by the creators who know how the system works. Problematic videos can become visible and proliferate well before moderators or automated systems notice them; in search, where users come looking with intent and time is urgent, this is even more true. Search differs from casual scrolling. Not “see what’s new,” but “do something now.” Which raises the cost of error in, for instance, health, money, civic tasks and safety.
Sensible habits can lower risk with little inconvenience. TikTok search is best as a beginning step rather than an ending one. Prefer creators who have sources shown on screen and date their claims. Cross-check health advice before acting on it with official guidance or a clinician, especially when antibiotics or rapid weight-loss claims are involved. Financial demands should be checked against central-bank and securities-regulator alerts before any money changes into a hand. Civic steps are for government pages and the official instructions in the Nagarik app: one must check if one has already registered one’s SIM, prepared the required documents, and then had them approved, before any wasted trips. As for disaster preparation, old earthquake-safety measures are the go-to. Thin signals like miracle language, countdown urgency, disabled comments and pure sales links should activate skepticism. The specific wording of each claim can be checked on the open web if any sound promising using recognized agency names or government domain names and official helplines for confirmation. Flagging deceptive clips and boosting solid ones gradually changes what others see.
Bigger improvements require product and policy decisions. If we knew more about where the search recommendations came from, we could also make independent assessments of risk and success. Privacy-safe data access by researchers could benefit the systematic study of high-impact queries across health, finance, civic processes and safety. Ranking can be adjusted to prioritize authority more in these domains but still promote upstarts’ local robust reporting voices. Labels and context panels should be consistently present in Nepali and other major local languages, located where the eye would naturally fall while watching a short clip. Simple, credible credential signals for health professionals as well as financial and civics educators could make it easier for viewers to identify expertise briefly. On the public side, schools, ministries and civil society can increase media- and health-literacy programs that teach fast verification inside the platforms people already use. Official advice can be designed and packaged for short-video realities — simple, visual and easy to reshare — so that credible information wins at least half the battle.
We won't return to searching like we used to. It's too convenient, speaks too locally and fits that everyday habit a little too well. The trick is to do so more safely. By making small but intentional changes — a more responsibility-aware ranking in high-risk topics, clearer and easier-to-use labels, visible signs of expertise and the ability for anyone to verify — Nepal can maintain the velocity of TikTok answers and its vernacular savviness while reducing harm. Until those changes grow more mature, a posture of curiosity with caution serves users well: Keep scrolling, check before doing and treat the most confident short answers as prompts to verify — not permissions to proceed.
