‘Child abuse, scams, pirated Dhurandhar’: In justifying Telegram ban, govt cites scrutiny beyond NEET-UG paper leak

AN native american authorities investigating has found that the electronic messaging applications programme Telegram is being used extensively to spread child sexual abuse material and carry out financial scams, according to a 35-page report by the Union home ministry's Cybercrime Coordination Centre submitted in court.The document contained screenshots from Telegram groups depicting fake job advertisements; material that showed the sexual abuse and exploitation of children; and a pirated version of the Bollywood film ‘Dhurandhar’.The government also stated it is “proactively monitoring” groups on the platform, news agency Reuters has reported citing a government report dated June 10. Telegram and the ministry did not respond to queries, Reuters said.The ministry report was submitted as part of the government's successful legal defence of a one-week ban on the app imposed ahead of the June 21 re-examination for the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test-Undergraduate (NEET-UG) for medical admissions. The retest was necessitated by a paper leak leading to cancellation of the original May 3 test. The government has cited Telegram as a medium through which the leaked paper spread.The ban ended on June 22, though the message-editing feature restriction remains in place until June 30.As of Tuesday morning, the app had become operational for some existing users but remained delisted on Apple's App Store until around 10 am, while becoming available on Google Play Store. Officials have reportedly said there are no plans to extend the ban.The matter had reached the Delhi high court, which on June 19 upheld the government's decision to block Telegram six days ahead of NEET-UG re-exam.What probe report said on TelegramThe government also said it has received more than 6.88 lakh complaints about Telegram as a medium for cyber fraud since 2023, causing an estimated loss of approximately $750 million to Indian citizens. Between January and May this year alone, there were 1,556 complaints linked to the use of Telegram, according to the home ministry report.“Cyber criminals use Telegram to access closed groups/channels ... (India) is proactively monitoring such Telegram groups and channels,” the report said.Telegram argued that an internal review found illegal content represented less than 0.1% of content on its platform, reported Reuters.In April, Britain's communications regulator launched a separate investigation into Telegram over evidence of child sexual abuse material being shared on the platform. Telegram has denied those allegations and said since 2018 it has “virtually eliminated” the public spread of such material through detection algorithms.India ban and challengeThe IT ministry, acting on recommendations by the National Testing Agency (NTA), issued a direction under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, 2000, restricting access to Telegram in India until June 22. A separate direction required Telegram to disable its message-editing feature for already-posted messages until June 30.The government told the court that some Telegram channels — named "Private Mafia" and "PAPER LEAKED NEET" — had sold fake question papers for up to ₹10 lakh ahead of the re-exam too.Channel administrators had allegedly exploited the platform's message-editing feature, which alters content without updating the timestamp, to fabricate post-exam “proof” of leaks.Channel-by-channel takedowns kept failing as removed channels resurfaced through mirrors, the government told the Delhi High Court.Telegram's pushbackTelegram has publicly opposed the ban. "You should also shut down all the shopping malls since there might be a theft in one of them. And close the roads because I heard someone was speeding," the messaging platform's official X account posted in response to criticism by Congress leader Karti Chidambaram.Telegram CEO Pavel Durov said the ban “punishes 150M+ ordinary Telegram users in India — not the insiders who leaked the exam materials”.India, with more than 150 million users, is Telegram's biggest market globally.The government said it is concerned about Telegram's privacy features, which allow users to interact without needing to reveal a phone number, making identity detection difficult — a feature not available on WhatsApp, the most popular chat application in India with over 500 million users.France in 2024 launched a probe into organised crime activity on the platform. That same year, Telegram was at the centre of controversy in South Korea over sexually explicit deepfake images, and in Spain, its use was temporarily suspended over copyright concerns