Hyderabad: Telegram founder and CEO Pavel Durov said the temporary Telegram ban in India affected more than 150 million users. He said the restriction failed to stop the spread of leaked examination material ahead of the NEET-UG 2026 re-examination.
In a post on X, Durov said India’s IT Ministry blocked Telegram for one week because some users shared leaked exam questions. He argued that the move affected millions of ordinary users. Durov also claimed that people involved in the leaks shifted to other applications after the restriction came into force.
The Telegram chief said the company had removed hundreds of channels in recent weeks. According to him, those channels allegedly shared leaked examination content and operated related scams in India.
Telegram ban imposed ahead of NEET-UG re-examination
The Indian government suspended Telegram services until June 22. Authorities took the step following recommendations from the National Testing Agency (NTA). The agency cited concerns over exam-related malpractice ahead of the NEET-UG 2026 re-examination scheduled for June 21.
Authorities also directed Telegram to disable its message-editing feature in India until June 30. Investigators believe some users misused the feature to alter timestamps and create misleading evidence of question paper leaks.
Durov said Telegram is working to make edited-message labels more prominent. He said the change would help prevent backdating scams and content manipulation. The re-examination follows allegations that question papers leaked during the original NEET-UG test held on May 3. Meanwhile, Google and Apple removed Telegram from their app stores after receiving the government directive.