India has temporarily blocked Telegram until June 22, affecting more than 150 million users, after authorities said the app was used to spread leaked or fake NEET-UG exam papers.
According to the government, cheating groups used Telegram to share fake or leaked question papers and coordinate exam fraud. Officials also temporarily disabled Telegram’s message-editing feature.
Telegram founder Pavel Durov criticized the ban
“India’s IT ministry banned 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 added: “And the ban hasn’t stopped anything. The leaks just moved to other apps.”