❁

As good as RBI is in India, it's still lenient against some very predatory practices by certain banks & credit card issuers. We need stricter regulations.

[❁ @Good__old_days]

IDFC FIRST Bank's systems are so archaic, legacy & broken that if you take a secured FD-backed credit card from them, their algorithm denies you an unsecured card FOREVER. That same broken algorithm CUTS credit limit on your unsecured credit cards if you take a secured card LATER

[❁ @Good__old_days]

@Swiggy The next scam by @Swiggy @Instamart_It. After canceling my packed order because their delivery person could not bother to collect it, now the bank discount offer is wasted. It is not applying again. Nice way to harass your customers. Plus the credit card is disabled😡
@HarshaMjty

[❁ @Good__old_days]

My @Swiggy @Instamart_It order got canceled even if it was packed as assigned delivery person never arrived to pick it up & didn't answer calls. Swiggy has no respect for unnecessary txns & refund on customer's credit card. A refund is not enuf, I want compensation.😡
@HarshaMjty

[𝐇𝐲𝐝𝐫𝐨𝐠𝐞𝐧 @ImHydro45]

BJP stopping paper leaks by banning Telegram.

[Gabbar @GabbbarSingh]

Govt banning Telegram to stop Paper leak is like banning plastic straws to stop people from drinking water.

[Shubh @kadaipaneeeer]

if pavel durov were indian and telegram operated from india, he’d probably be facing legal action by now & the education ministry would’ve accused him of leaking the neet paper.

[Mukesh @mikejava85]

Then we ask why no Google/Amazon has come from India , Indian govt make random laws which can close you tech startup

[❁ @Good__old_days]

Authoritarian decisions like the Telegram ban or the WhatsApp SIM binding ruling is why I will not be voting for a certain party in the next general elections and you shouldn't either. Any Govt that intrudes on basic freedoms can never be helpful for its country. Enough is enough

[Mehul Mohan @mehulmpt]

This ban is such a stupid decision. A paper leak is literally a PDF document that can be shared via infinite ways. There’s nothing inherently that telegram enables or can even contribute to making the leak easy or anonymous.

just a solution to a problem that does not exist.

[Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF) @internetfreedom]

Dear Ministry of IT,
Scammers are reportedly using Spyware and Mass Surveillance Facial Recognition to leak NEET papers. Kindly issue a ban. /s

[ThePrintIndia @ThePrintIndia]

Teen cyber whiz who hacked CBSE & IIT-Kanpur director who hired him spar over Telegram ban

Vrinda Tulsian @vrinda_tulsian reports

#ThePrintEducation

https://t.co/E1btPksebG

[Deccan Herald @DeccanHerald]

'India punished more than 150 million people': Telegram founder Pavel Durov slams ban on messenger app https://t.co/izO0jmWSm9

[Utkarsh Neil @iUtkarshNeil]

Just imagine if even after banning Telegram, NEET-UG paper gets leaked.

Kitni thu thu hogi sarkar ki

[Gregor Shamsa @gulaab_ali_]

India has this collective punishment problem. It manifests in various ways in its day to day functions of J*diciary and bureaucracy

[Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF) @internetfreedom]

Statement : Shutting down Telegram is a band aid solution and is a disproportionate answer to exam fraud

The Internet Freedom Foundation objects to the directions announced today in the National Testing Agency's press release on action against the Telegram platform. On the NTA's recommendation, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has, under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, 2000, restricted access to the whole of Telegram in India until 22 June 2026, and has separately ordered the platform to switch off message-editing for every Indian user until 30 June 2026. This is a blunt, nationwide measure aimed at the conduct of rampant fraud rackets, and on the Government's own admission is constitutionally incompatible.

At the outset it is important to note that Section 69A and the Blocking Rules of 2009 framed under it allow the Government to block access to specific “information” on a computer resource. They do not extend to switching off an entire intermediary, still less to ordering a company to redesign its product by removing a feature for a whole country. In Shreya Singhal v Union of India, the Supreme Court upheld Section 69A because it is narrow and hedged with procedural safeguards. Reading it to authorise shutting down a platform that lakhs use is an overbroad restriction by the NTAs own admission. For the message-editing direction the release identifies no source of power at all. If one exists, the order must say so.

The release argues against itself

A restriction on access has to be the least intrusive measure that achieves its aim as per the constitutional test of proportionality laid down in Justice K.S. Puttaswamy v. Union of India (2017) and applied in Anuradha Bhasin v. Union of India (2020). The NTA's own narration shows the block fails its nodal agency, the release says, “has secured the prompt take-down of a substantial number of Telegram channels, groups and bots”, and this targeted work “is the reason the harm caused by these rackets has been contained to the extent it has”. If channel level takedown contained the harm, the case for a blanket block collapses and hence the Government has reached for a heavier tool while conceding that a lighter one was working. The collateral cost sits on the record too as noted in the press release. The block, the NTA accepts, “affects lakhs of citizens who use the Telegram platform for legitimate personal, educational, professional and informational purposes”. The release also says there is "no such paper available outside the secured examination chain" and that “the security of the examination is unaffected by the action taken”. If the exam is secure and no leak exists, what is being suppressed is rumour, and rumour cannot justify closing a platform when specific blocking and criminal prosecution remain available.

Students use of Telegram

The block of telegram is reactive and ineffective and will punish ordinary users instead of addressing the systemic source of exam leaks. This blocking comes in the final days of NEET preparation, when thousands of students depend on Telegram for study groups, doubt-clearing, and shared resources. Also, it is important to consider that the source of exam papers leak will occur from inside the system, among insiders and across the printing and logistics chain, with the platform being the most downstream channel for distribution. Hence, switching off Telegram, is merely a deflection from the repeated failures that will continue while media attention is directed towards this Telegram ban.

Lack of transparency

At present only a press release from the NTA has been provided, which recommended the block but the reasoned order of MeitY, the authority that issued it, has not been released. The Anuradha Bhasin decision requires that orders restricting access be published so they can be tested in court. Here the order, and the reasoning of the committee behind it, stay out of view, and we do not know whether Telegram was heard at all. An announcement of a block is no substitute for an order the affected party can challenge.
Blunt to enforce and very easy to evade
Usually, app-level blocks run through IS-level DNS and IP filtering. They are over inclusive, sweeping in lawful use, yet simple to evade as a determined exam leak racket moves to a VPN or a mirror within minutes while ordinary users lose the service for a week.

We ask the Government to:

1) Publish the MeitY Section 69A order and the NTA recommendation behind it, with reasons;
2) State the legal basis for the message editing direction, or withdraw it;
3) Confirm whether Telegram was given a hearing under the Blocking Rules, and place the committee's record before any court that hears a challenge; and
4) Lift the platform-wide restriction and rely on the targeted takedowns the NTA itself credits with containing the harm.

We emphasise that the NEET (UG) 2026 re-examination is worth protecting and it concerns the future of lakhs of aspirants. It requires securing the entire process of examination rather than reaching for purported band aid solutions that instead cause more harm. The State cannot switch off a service used by lakhs to answer the wrongdoing of a few, and cannot do it through an order no one affected is allowed to read. On its own facts, the Government has done both.

New Delhi, 16 June 2026.

[mememandir @mememandir]

Dear ministry of IT,
Scammers are reportedly using Slack & MS teams to leak NEET papers. Kindly issue a ban.

[NDTV @ndtv]

"Leaks Just Moved To Other Apps": Telegram CEO Reacts To India Ban
https://t.co/qP25RNWz6q

[Rudra Bhaskar @Rudra9439]

Imagine explaining to international investors and protocol engineers that your startup progress is stalled because your government decided restricting Telegram groups was the answer to exam leaks.

My startup @GammaHedgeX being incubated by a Vietnam-based VC and was in active integration talks with protocol teams. Now critical discussions are frozen overnight.

Overnight, critical communication channels are disrupted. 📵

The people leaking papers will find another platform by tomorrow.

Founders, builders, and legitimate communities are the ones paying the price. 💸

Peak incompetence. 👏🤦‍♂️

[Pranesh Prakash @pranesh]

Wow. Reliance Communications has engaged in BGP hijacking of Telegram's IP prefixes and is leaking it globally via FLAG Telecom (AS15412) and affecting traffic far beyond India. (Is this an accident?)

It is still live:
cc: @anurag_bhatia @Squeal @kingslyj @AroonDeep @Aditi_muses

[Anand Sankar @saybwala]

Today's Telegram ban is proof of why an indigenous social media or messaging app can never grow in India.

If @durov was Indian, he would be in jail along with his entire team and his entire infrastructure seized because a question paper was supposedly leaked on Telegram. It would have taken a few months to get bail. Line of FIRs stretching to Kanyakumari. Court cases dragging on for a decade or more. TV channels would have gone to town with all kinds of consipracies of how Soros is involved.

We have vaguely written laws, open to the worst interpretation and bureaucratic overreactions. It's not a stable foundation for anyone to build on.

The same applies to now AI. Anyday someone will be offended in this country by anything an indigenous AI generates in text or images and the founders can find themselves in jail and fighting court cases.

[Ashok Mor @_techibee]

Telegram goes down and suddenly everyone is expected to believe the paper leak problem is solved.

Instead of fixing corrupt officials, weak security, and leak networks, the solution is to block an entire platform used by millions. That's like burning the library because one student cheated on an exam.

Government really needs to start using brain where it actually matters.

[Reuters @Reuters]

Telegram founder Durov says India has 'punished' more than 150 million people by banning Telegram https://t.co/Y5kWzXKh3G https://t.co/Y5kWzXKh3G