THE country has blocked the Telegram messaging app until June 22, saying the platform has been used to “defraud candidates” taking a national medical entrance examination, the Ministry of Education said in a statement.
The government said yesterday it was restricting access to the Telegram platform in India for a defined and limited period.
The restriction was issued under a stringent provision of the IT law, which empowers the government to block access to online sites in the “interest of sovereignty and integrity of India”.
Activists have said the provision is used to curb free speech, though Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government says it always acts in compliance with the law and in the public interest.
Last month, the Indian government cancelled a key undergraduate entrance exam for medical colleges known as National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET), after authorities discovered its questions had been leaked beforehand.
The paper leaks led to a series of protest by students in different parts of the country, including sporadic demonstrations by India’s viral Cockroach Janta Party demanding the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.
The government has scheduled a fresh examination for June 21.
The measure on Telegram was taken “in response to the organised use of the platform by cheating rackets to defraud candidates appearing for the NEET 2026 re-examination scheduled on 21 June 2026,” said the Ministry of Education’s National Testing Agency.
An activist group said the ban was an infringement of free speech that would not solve the problem.
“Shutting down Telegram is a band aid solution and is a disproportionate answer to exam fraud,” the Internet Freedom Foundation said.
Telegram has grown rapidly in India and the country is its biggest market by downloads, although WhatsApp remains the dominant messaging platform.
That makes the temporary restriction a rare and sweeping intervention for a service used well beyond politics and news.
In a statement yesterday the government said it regretted the inconvenience and that the measure was a “last resort” after earlier action to remove such content from the platform had not worked.
Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea, which together serve more than one billion mobile connections in India, did not immediately respond to requests for comment on whether they had received and begun implementing the blocking directive.
Alphabet’s Google and Apple both received an order from the government to de-list the Telegram app from their app stores temporarily and will comply, sources with direct knowledge of the matter said. — Reuters
