New Delhi (PTI): The decision to temporarily ban Telegram was taken by the government after the company failed to abate the circulation of fake examination papers of the NEET exam, the dissemination of misleading information and other fraudulent activities, which had implications on the integrity of the examination process, sources aware of the development said.
According to the sources, a meeting was held with Telegram officials on June 3, where concerns were raised about repeated incidents and the failure of the platform to curb illegal activities.
"Even after repeated discussions, Telegram failed to effectively check illegal activities related to the NEET exam, which led to public unrest in the country. There was apprehensions that repetition of the same will again create panic among students and hamper the integrity of the exam scheduled on June 21. Therefore, it was decided to block Telegram and its associated URL-like web version till June 22," a source said.
The order has also been issued to Telegram to block its message editing feature till June 30.
A query sent to Telegram in this regard elicited no immediate reply.
Telegram Founder and CEO Pavel Durov has criticised India's IT ministry's ban of Telegram for one week "because some users shared leaked exam questions."
"This punishes 150M+ ordinary Telegram users in India - not the insiders who leaked the exam materials," he said. "And the ban hasn't stopped anything. The leaks just moved to other apps."
He went on to state that over the past few weeks, Telegram has removed hundreds of channels sharing leaked exam materials and related scams in India.
"We're also making the 'edited' label more visible to prevent backdating scams," he said. "Telegram is a force for good. Banning it - even temporarily - is a mistake."
Durov has alleged that Reliance may have been involved in efforts to ban the messaging platform in India, and accused an affiliate of disrupting Telegram's internet access outside the country – a claim which Reliance Jio denied of having any involvement.
In a post on social media platform X, Durov alleged that Indian telecom operator Reliance was "sabotaging access" to Telegram for millions of users outside India, including in the United Arab Emirates, through a technique known as Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) hijacking.
"The sabotage seems intentional, as Reliance has ignored multiple reports. This may be part of a competitive war, as Reliance is partially owned by Meta, the company behind WhatsApp," Durov wrote.
He further said he would not be surprised if "Reliance/WhatsApp" were behind lobbying efforts to ban Telegram in India.
"Network operators are advised to reject unauthorised BGP announcements from Reliance (AS18101) to prevent route hijacks and ensure stable Internet access for their users," he said. "Such abuse of global Internet routing is alarming. I wouldn't be surprised if Reliance/ WhatsApp were also behind the recent lobbying effort to ban Telegram in India."
Reliance Jio, in a late evening post on Tuesday, without naming Durov, said that recent posts on X have led to speculation regarding Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited (AS55836) and a BGP route misconfiguration.
"We categorically clarify that Jio has not been involved in any such incident. Jio continues to operate its network in accordance with global Internet routing best practices and the highest standards of reliability, security, and transparency," Reliance Jio said.
A senior telecom industry source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Durov appeared to have conflated two separate companies -- Reliance Communications and Reliance Industries' telecom arm Jio.
Telegram stopped working for existing users in India from Wednesday onwards, but it continues to remain operational through Virtual Protocol Network (VPN), according to industry experts.
Google delisted the app on Tuesday, and Apple's App Store has also removed it now in compliance with the government order to block access to the app, ahead of the NEET-UG 2026 re-examination.
"Blocking of Telegram will not help the paper leak. It continues to be operational on VPNs which bypass Indian servers and connect with foreign servers for operations," Voyager Infosec Director Jiten Jain said.
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This report was published from a syndicated wire feed. Apart from the headline, the EdexLive Desk has not edited the copy.