Overview
- The Delhi High Court on Friday upheld the Centre’s order to block Telegram in India until June 22 and to disable the app’s message-editing feature until June 30.
- The government told the court it acted after the National Testing Agency identified coordinated channels and bots offering paid access to alleged NEET papers and after repeated requests to Telegram failed to stop the spread.
- Authorities cited Telegram’s cloud architecture, large public channels, bot networks and editable posts as reasons why content-specific takedowns were ineffective and why a platform-wide, time-bound measure was needed.
- Telegram said it removed more than 900 unlawful links and used AI and machine learning to curb misuse, while CEO Pavel Durov warned the curbs punish ordinary users; Google and Apple removed the app from their stores and some users still access it via VPNs.
- The ruling tests the scope of Section 69A blocking powers, raises questions about enforcing exam integrity without broad platform restrictions, and leaves an ongoing CBI investigation and scrutiny of enforcement tools as the next issues to watch.