Indian telecom Reliance is sabotaging access to Telegram for millions of users OUTSIDE India (including the UAE) via a rogue method called 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.
Network operators are advised to reject unauthorized BGP announcements from Reliance (AS18101) to prevent route hijacks and ensure stable Internet access for their users.
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.
🚫 India’s IT ministry banned Telegram for one week because some users shared leaked exam questions.
This punishes 150 million ordinary Telegram users in India — not the insiders who leaked the exam materials.
And the ban hasn't stopped anything. The leaks just moved to other apps.
🛡 We’ve done a lot to help fix the problem — even though its source is not Telegram.
Over the past few weeks, we removed hundreds of channels sharing leaked exam materials and related scams in India.
We’ve also been making the “edited” label more visible to prevent backdating scams.
🏳️ Telegram is a force for good. Banning it — even temporarily — is a mistake.
⚠️ Indian telecom Reliance is sabotaging access to Telegram for millions of users OUTSIDE India (including the UAE) via a rogue method called 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.
🌐 Network operators are advised to reject unauthorized BGP announcements from Reliance (AS18101) to prevent route hijacks and ensure stable Internet access for their users.
🤔 Such abuse of global Internet routing is suspicous. I wouldn’t be surprised if Reliance/WhatsApp were also behind the recent lobbying effort to ban Telegram in India.
@ton_blockchain@durov
Huge allegations by Pavel Durov, maker of #Telegram. Reliance investments in WhatsApp are being questioned, so is the way Reliance is blocking Telegram access through BGP hijacking. Has Indian govt poked a hornet’s nest by such an app ban?
BJP bans Telegram for 6 days on the pretext of handling paper leaks on Telegram. Well, that is the PR line for the media. What is the real intention though ?
Always try to understand the "TRUTH behind the TRUTH". No decision of BJP is taken because some babus are too stupid. We get caught in this trap. Including @theskindoctor13 and @amitkilhor. But the reality is different. Babus and ministries are NOT stupid. They know what they are doing. Everyone knows scammers will merely move to other apps. So why did they do it ?
It was to throttle Telegram. Using Reliance, they have been banning users outside India by forcing network operators to reject reroutes.
The real intention is to SEND a message to Telegram. To comply like Twitter and Instagram and share IP addresses of dissenters.
The real objective is always this. Find dissenters, especially Right of the Right wing dissenters and take them out. LW dissenters do not matter as more they abuse BJP along with Hinduism, the more they push Hindus towards BJP. It is the Right of the Right wing dissenters that expose the #FraudofBJP. They must not be allowed to continue.
BJP doesn't care about paper leaks. Neither do they care about student lives and careers. The only thing that matters - WIN at ANY cost. POWER
With Telegram not sharing such details, the real game was always about compliance. Check the below screenshots from BJP Chatukars.
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
BREAKING: Telegram's founder accuses India's biggest telecom company of secretly blocking Telegram for millions of users outside India.
Pavel Durov says Reliance is using a method called BGP hijacking, a technique where a company corrupts internet routing tables to redirect or block traffic from specific apps and websites.
In simple terms, Reliance is manipulating how internet traffic flows globally to cut off access to Telegram for users in countries like the UAE.
Durov says this appears intentional because Reliance has ignored multiple reports flagging the issue.
He is also calling on all network operators worldwide to reject unauthorized routing announcements from Reliance to stop the hijacking and restore normal internet access for their users.
Durov suspects both Reliance and Meta are jointly behind the recent lobbying effort to get Telegram banned in India entirely.
@durov Beautiful kudos to you @durov.
Please explore more and more from your technical experience.
We need more and more. We Indian people are fed up with the illiterate people who run the Govt.