Durov accuses Reliance, WhatsApp of lobbying for Telegram ban in India
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Telegram CEO Pavel Durov has accused Reliance of disrupting access to Telegram through "BGP hijacking" and alleged that the company, along with Meta-owned WhatsApp, may have been involved in lobbying for the messaging platform's temporary ban in India ahead of the NEET-UG 2026 re-examination.
In a post on X on Tuesday, Durov claimed Reliance was sabotaging access to Telegram for millions of users outside India, including in the UAE, through unauthorised routing announcements. He described the disruption as deliberate and said Reliance had ignored multiple reports about the issue.
Durov urged network operators worldwide to reject routing announcements originating from Reliance's autonomous system, AS18101, to protect access to Telegram.
Linking the issue to competition in the messaging market, Durov said Reliance is partially owned by Meta, the parent company of WhatsApp. He added that he would not be surprised if Reliance and WhatsApp were behind recent efforts to ban Telegram in India.
"The decision to ban Telegram in India looks more like a way to help WhatsApp protect its market share than a legitimate regulatory action that can fix anything," Durov said.
In a separate post, he criticised the ban, saying it penalised more than 150 million Telegram users in India who had no connection to the NEET-UG paper leak. Durov said Telegram had removed hundreds of channels involved in sharing leaked exam materials and related scams in recent weeks.
The Indian government has blocked access to Telegram until June 22 and directed Google and Apple to remove the app from their stores in India. The measures were introduced to prevent fraud networks from spreading false claims of a leaked NEET-UG question paper before the June 21 re-examination.
Authorities have also ordered Telegram to disable its message-editing feature for existing posts in India until June 30, citing concerns that fraudsters used the feature to fabricate evidence of leaks after exams had taken place.
The move has drawn criticism from students and social media users, who argued that the ban disrupted access to legitimate study materials while failing to address those responsible for the alleged leak.