Telegram CEO Pavel Durov Reacts to App Ban in India, Claims Reliance Is Sabotaging Access to Telegram for Millions of Users Outside India
The Indian Government recently put a temporary ban on the use of Telegram app in India. The ban is said to be in connection with the upcoming NEET-UG 2026 re-examination, which is scheduled for 21st June, and will reportedly remain in place till June 22nd.
Here’s more about the update.
Telegram CEO Pavel Durov Reacts to App Ban in India
Telegram CEO Pavel Durov has now reacted to the reported ban on the app in India, and has made several allegations against Indian telecom operator Reliance Jio. In a post shared on X, Durov mentioned that Reliance is sabotaging access to Telegram for millions of users outside India as well, including users in the UAE, through what he called a rogue method known as BGP hijacking.
He further added that the internet traffic linked to Telegram is being affected by unauthorized BGP announcements from Reliance’s AS18101, which has lead to access issues for users even outside India. Just to add, BGP hijacking is a type of cyberattack in which a malicious actor falsely claims ownership of IP address ranges, also called prefixes, through the Border Gateway Protocol. Since BGP mostly works on trust and does not have strong built-in verification, other networks may accept the fake route, causing internet traffic to be rerouted, intercepted, or dropped.
These latest allegations made by Telegram’s CEO are quite serious, and Durov has further claimed that the issue seems intentional, as Reliance has allegedly ignored multiple reports. He also mentioned that this may be part of a competitive war, as Reliance is partially owned by Meta, the company behind WhatsApp. However, Reliance has not confirmed any of these claims so far.
Furthermore, one user on X also highlighted how the reported ban has affected students preparing for exams. The user mentioned that “my brother’s NEET PG notes, videos and paid study groups were all on telegram telegram got banned. so now he’s stuck messaging pirated-content scammers just to access what he already paid for to stop one leaked NEET UG paper, you broke access for thousands of honest aspirants the source of the leak walks free. the medium gets banned. the students get punished this is the solution?”
Stay tuned for more updates.
