“Ban hasn’t stopped anything”: Telegram CEO slams ban

The Internet, they say, doesn’t forget and doesn’t forgive. And they were certainly in an unforgiving mood, as they created a day to remember after the government moved to ban Telegram in the wake of papers being leaked. 

What happened?

In the wake of NEET papers being leaked, the government moved to announce a re-test and ordered a temporary restriction on Telegram under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, 2000. The ban is scheduled to remain in force until June 22. 

“The directions have been issued in the interest of public order, in response to the organised use of the platform by cheating rackets to defraud candidates appearing for the NEET (UG) 2026 re-examination,” the National Testing Agency had said.

But Telegram (and indeed, the Internet) is not taking this lying down. 

Telegram’s head honcho responds

Telegram CEO Pavel Durov moved swiftly to publicly condemn the temporary ban in India, stating that punishing over 150 million legitimate users is a mistake. 

He argued the move fails to stop fraudsters, as the paper leak rings simply migrated to other apps like WhatsApp and X. He also highlighted that Telegram proactively removed hundreds of fraudulent channels, and the move is excessive. 

Telegram has approached the Delhi High Court challenging the Central government’s decision, even as the internet has ridiculed the Government’s decision. 

The internet weighs in

After Karti Chidambaram lambasted the decision, Telegram’s official channel took things one further and decided the lampoon things as well. Others weren’t far behind. 

For its part, the Indian Internet Freedom Foundation said that, “Shutting down Telegram is a band aid solution and is a disproportionate answer to exam fraud”. And it is hard to argue with that, as the ban hardly addresses the core issue of leaks happening. 

As Whale Factor said above, if AQI is dodgy, one does not simply stop breathing. They must fix the core issues. 

It remains to be seen if this solution of blocking Telegram solves the issue of consistent paper leaks, but it is hard to argue that is the solution to the problem. Here’s hoping that the next round of re-examinations go off without issue, for it is vital to the future of India’s youth.