The Indian government’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has temporarily banned popular social media platform Telegram until June after the news agency filed a petition in the Delhi High Court challenging the government’s decision. The petition was filed before Justice Tejas Karia and the court has already allowed an emergency hearing. Earlier, the company’s CEO Pavel Durov made a serious allegation that the Reliance Group and WhatsApp, which owns a partial stake in Meta, may have pressured the government to impose the ban.
Through Social Media X, Durov alleged that Reliance misused a special internet technology called Border Gateway Protocol Hijacking to block Telegram for users outside India like UAE. This is one such method‘Internet traffic is misdirected. He advised the network operators to reject such unauthorized announcements by Reliance and said that such misuse of the global internet system was really worrying. He added that he would not be surprised if Reliance or WhatsApp were behind the current ban. He called the whole incident part of a competitive war and mentioned the partnership between Reliance and Meta. He also released some technical drawings when seeking evidence, although these allegations have yet to be independently substantiated.
On the other handA senior source in the telecom sector told the media that Pavel Durov was confused between the two different arms of Reliance, Reliance Communications and Reliance Jio, and made false allegations. According to sources, Meta Jio is only a minority shareholder and has no role in its day-to-day operations. Treating these two companies as the same indicates their lack of understanding of the sector or attempts to spread misinformation.
The CEO also questioned the effectiveness of the government’s week-long ban. He said that this ban is harassing about 15 crore common users of the country without punishing the real culprits who leaked the exam papers. He clarified that even if Telegram is closed, the same information will continue to be disseminated through other media. Nilesh Trivedi, a software expert, pointed out that Telegram has the ability to change messages with old datesSo the question paper leak may be an attempt to spread panic. Durov said that they have already shut down hundreds of channels involved in question paper leaks and cheating in India and have taken measures to prevent such cheating. “Telegram works for the good of society,” he said, adding that banning it was a big mistake.
Students have also reported huge losses due to the closure of this communication channel just before the exams. All important study notes of many students who are preparing for NET examVideo and paid study groups were on Telegram, which they can no longer use Durov says that such restrictions never work, instead they force the younger generation to use alternative means to watch bad things. As most people used VPNs after Telegram was shut down in Russia. The Internet Freedom Foundation has also criticized the ban as being more stringent than necessary.
There has also been intense political criticism over the whole issue. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi strongly condemned the government’s move and called it a new play by the Modi government to prevent the question paper leak. He said the government is imposing restrictions on the victims without arresting the real criminalsWhich is very unfortunate. He lamented that the real problem will not be solved if the means of preparation of lakhs of students are stopped. The government issued a temporary ban based on a complaint filed by the National Examinations Board (NEB) against the cheating ring.