21:20
Telegram CEO Pavel Durov on Tuesday criticised India's temporary restriction on the messaging platform ahead of the NEET-UG test, claiming it unfairly affects millions of users.
He claimed that India's IT ministry banned Telegram for one week because "some users shared leaked exam questions" and that "leaks have moved to other apps".
"India's IT ministry banned Telegram for one week because some users shared leaked exam questions. This punishes 150M+ 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," he said in a post on X, reacting to the Internet Freedom Foundation press release.
The National Testing Agency will conduct the rescheduled NEET-UG exam on June 21.
The Internet Freedom Foundation release objected to the directions announced today in the National Testing Agency's statement on action concerning the Telegram platform.
"On the NTA's recommendation, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has, under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, 2000, restricted access to the whole of Telegram in India until 22 June 2026, and has separately ordered the platform to switch off message-editing for every Indian user until 30 June 2026...," the press release said. -- ANI
