Telegram was warned against abuse before blanket ban, NTA chief says

Before the blanket ban was issued, representatives of messaging app Telegram were invited to meetings “at the highest levels” and warned against misusing the app’s features that facilitate “paper leak scams”, Abhishek Singh, director general of the National Testing Agency (NTA), told The Hindu on Wednesday (Jun 17, 2026).

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has blocked nationwide access to Telegram until June 22. In addition, it ordered Telegram to disable the message editing feature for all Indian users by June 30.

Mr. Singh said the primary motive behind the government’s intervention is to stop the spread of artificially created fake leaks that can spread panic among students ahead of the National Entrance Cum Eligibility Test (NEET) re-examination scheduled for June 21.

“The government had previously approached Telegram about the misuse of two specific features, including the visibility of modified timestamps in Telegram groups and addressing the lack of strict naming filters for its groups. However, Telegram did not change its system at the time,” Mr Singh said.

The NTA was concerned about the modus operandi being used by bad actors on Telegram to create mass panic by fabricating evidence of question paper leaks. Cheating syndicates systematically exploit a specific loophole in Telegram’s group and channel synchronization features.

For example, a bad actor can create a public Telegram channel and link it to an affiliated group. Days before the exam, an admin may upload a random PDF file to the channel and name it provocatively as “NEET Question Paper Leaked”. A day after the actual exam, the operator can use Telegram’s edit feature to replace the dummy PDF file with the actual question paper. While a post within a channel displays an “edited” tag, the linked group retains the timestamp of the original post made a few days earlier. This creates a highly convincing illusion that the actual question was available on the platform before the exam began, creating panic.

“Following the ban, Telegram founder Pavel Durov said on X that he would make the ‘edited’ mark visible to prevent backdating scams. However, this change is still not visible in the app,” Mr Singh said. “Why can’t Telegram simply fix its metadata so that timestamp changes are accurately reflected in linked group chats,” he asked.

Pointing out that Telegram allows the creation of alleged criminal groups with dubious names such as “Paper Leak NEET Mafia”, Mr Singh said the app must “follow norms”.

The NTA CEO argued that the lack of strict naming filters and the ability to quickly obscure the identities of participants had turned the platform into a hub for a variety of alleged illegal activities, from paper leaks to investment fraud. On 15 June, The Hindu reported that the Ahmedabad Police Cyber ​​Cell busted a fake NEET paper leak racket that used Telegram.

Integrity versus freedom

The move to ban Telegram has sparked a debate among government officials, tech experts and legal analysts examining integrity versus digital freedoms.

Manindra Agarwal, director, IIT-Kanpur, said that since the NEET exam papers were leaked, NTA’s motive is to stop the spread of fake news. “Telegram is a popular app, but it should also behave responsibly, especially if it has been asked to tweak certain features,” Mr Agarwal said.

However, cybersecurity and policy experts have warned against an absolutist approach to the platform.

Nisarga Adhikary, a cybersecurity researcher at IIT-K, warned that a blanket ban or hard restriction “optimizes visibility rather than actual risk reduction.”

“Telegram is relatively mainstream and has at least an identifiable infrastructure, legal points of contact and a large amount of public activity,” Mr Adhikary said. “If determined actors are forced out of it, they won’t disappear. They’ll migrate to platforms with stronger anonymity features… pushing adversaries into the darker corners of the ecosystem can simply reduce visibility into it.”

Mr. Adhikary also pointed out the technical impracticality of demanding immediate software overhauls, saying it was not easy for Telegram to change built-in features such as editing or archiving at short notice. He noted that the actual timestamps of edits are stored on Telegram’s servers and can potentially be accessed by law enforcement through standard legal notices.

Legal experts suggest that a narrow, specific restriction — rather than a blanket ban — could stand up to scrutiny. Monalisa Nanda, team manager at the Center for Law, Policy and Governance, suggested that Telegram’s feature-specific temporary restrictions during a narrow trial period met the legal criteria set by the Supreme Court.

“A surgical restriction focused only on the message editing function during trial windows would protect the public interest while preserving the functionality of the wider platform for ordinary users,” Ms Nanda said.

In a statement, the Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF) argued that the government’s Telegram ban was a band-aid solution and an inadequate response to exam cheating. “It is important to note at the outset that section 69A and the 2009 blocking rules contained therein allow the government to block access to specific ‘information’ on a computer resource. They do not involve shutting down an entire intermediary, much less ordering a company to redesign its product by removing a feature for the entire country,” IFF said.

The IFF argued that the Telegram ban was reactive and ineffective and would punish ordinary users instead of addressing the systemic source of test leaks. “This blocking comes in the final days of NEET preparation, when thousands of students depend on Telegram for study groups, doubt clearing and shared resources. It is also important to consider that the source of exam paper leaks will be from within the system, between insiders and across the printing and logistics chain, with the platform being the most watched channel for distribution. So shutting down Telegram’s attention is only a diversion from Telegram, which will only go to media diversion,” added.

The IFF demanded publication of the government order and the NTA’s recommendation behind the ban with reasons. “The government should provide a legal basis for directing messages to be edited or withdrawn; it should confirm whether Telegram has been heard under the blocking rules and submit the committee’s record to any court hearing the challenge; and it should lift platform-wide restrictions and rely on targeted takedowns that the NTA itself attributes to containing harm,” the statement said.

Published – 17 Jun 2026 22:20 IST