India Blocks Telegram Until June 22 to Combat NEET Exam Fraud

India's National Testing Agency (NTA) has ordered a temporary ban on Telegram until June 22, following recommendations to India's Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY). The restrictions, issued under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, target organized fraud schemes using the messaging platform ahead of the NEET (Undergraduate) 2026 re-examination scheduled for June 21. The re-test was ordered after the original exam was compromised by a paper leak scandal that triggered a federal investigation and prompted heightened security measures across India's national testing system.

The NTA cited evidence that fraudsters were operating numerous Telegram channels with names such as "PAPER LEAKED DETT" and "Private Mafia," demanding payments ranging from thousands to hundreds of thousands of rupees from students by falsely promising access to examination papers. The agency emphasized that no such papers exist outside the secured examination chain. In addition to the platform ban, MeitY directed Telegram to disable its message-editing feature within India until June 30, as the NTA found evidence that this feature had been misused to fabricate fake evidence of paper leaks by backdating edited messages after examinations concluded.

Telegram CEO Pavel Durov criticized the measure, arguing that the week-long restriction would penalize more than 150 million Indian users rather than address the underlying fraud. Durov stated that Telegram had already removed hundreds of channels linked to leaked exam materials in recent weeks and questioned the ban's effectiveness, noting that "leaks just moved to other apps." He later alleged that Indian telecom operator Reliance was disrupting Telegram access for some users outside India through unauthorized internet routing announcements. Google removed the Telegram app from its Play Store in India following the government's announcement, though the app remained accessible to some users at the time of reporting.

Digital rights advocates swiftly opposed the restrictions. The Internet Freedom Foundation called the ban a "disproportionate" response to exam fraud and challenged whether Section 69A legally permits blocking an entire platform rather than specific content. The NTA defended the action by noting that intermediate measures, including coordinated takedowns of fraudulent accounts, had failed to adequately curb the spread of misinformation. NTA Director General Abhishek Singh argued that even if fraud networks continued operating via VPNs or from outside India, eliminating the user base in the country would prevent victimization of Indian students.

The Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), operating under the Ministry of Home Affairs, has been coordinating operational action against Telegram-based fraud schemes, working with state law enforcement agencies and facilitating the removal of numerous fraudulent accounts. The Bihar Police Economic Offences Unit had already issued a public advisory on June 9 warning NEET candidates against such fraudulent schemes. India is Telegram's largest market globally, with approximately 354 million monthly active users and nearly 600 million downloads since the platform's launch.