Telegram CEO Alleges Reliance Lobbying Role Behind Temporary Block, Moves HC

New Delhi: A day before Telegram moved the Delhi high court to challenge the Union government's decision to temporarily restrict access to the messaging platform in India till June 22, its CEO alleged that Reliance Group, in which Meta holds a partial stake, and WhatsApp may have lobbied to impose this ban.

A vacation bench, comprising Justice Tejas Karia, allowed urgent listing of the case for today.

Telegram CEO blames Reliance

In a post on X, Telegram CEO Pavel Durov accused Reliance of disrupting access for users outside India, including the United Arab Emirates, using the border gateway protocol (BGP) hijacking technique, a method that misroutes internet traffic by broadcasting unauthorised routing information.

"Network operators are advised to reject unauthorised BGP announcements from Reliance (AS18101) to prevent route hijacks and ensure stable Internet access for their users. Such abuse of global Internet routing is alarming," he wrote, "I wouldn’t be surprised if Reliance/WhatsApp were also behind the recent lobbying effort to ban Telegram in India." He suggested the disruption was part of a "competitive war," citing Meta's involvement with Reliance.

In another social media post, replying to Creators Media World's request for technical evidence, Durov shared pictures of Reliance's AS18101 prefixes on Hurricane Electric's BGP toolkit, with several Telegram-related IP ranges highlighted.

Plenty pic.twitter.com/9pxKMhyUKq

— Pavel Durov (@durov) June 16, 2026

As of now, Durov's allegations have not been independently verified and no publicly available evidence has established the cause or intent behind the disruption.

'Two entities'

A senior telecom industry source, speaking to Economic Times, argued that Durov had confused two distinct entities: Reliance Communications and Reliance Industries' telecom branch, Jio, in which Meta has a minority share.

"Meta is only a minority investor in Jio and has no role in its day-to-day operations or management. Conflating the two demonstrates either a lack of understanding of the sector or a deliberate attempt to spread misinformation," the report quoted an unnamed source as having said. He, however, did not speak to the veracity of the broad allegations.

'A band aid solution'

Durov has sharply questioned whether the week-long ban can achieve what the government claims. Responding to a user flagging NEET paper leaks circulation on X group chats and WhatsApp channels, he replied, "Obviously," highlighting his argument about the content merely migrating to other platforms in the absence of Telegram.

He explicitly stated the ramifications in a separate post on Tuesday (June 16), arguing that the move "punished" more than 150 million ordinary users in the country, instead of "insiders who leaked the exam materials."

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. https://t.co/CzQWN4mXfb

— Pavel Durov (@durov) June 16, 2026

The nature of the leak has also come under scrutiny. Software developer Nilesh Trivedi pointed out that Telegram allows message editing without a visible flag, meaning what appeared to be leaked exam papers could have been backdated attempts to cause panic. "Isn't the right response to this just an announcement detailing how this works and eliminating the panic?" he asked, tagging the NTA and its chairman on X. "Telegram's credibility also comes under question. Why do messages have a "Hide Edit" flag that client apps respect? It seems like a huge attack vector and I can't think of any UX justification for this," he added.

Durov also emphasised actions taken by Telegram in the past few weeks. "We removed hundreds of channels sharing leaked exam materials and related scams in India. We’re also making the “edited” label more visible to prevent backdating scams. Telegram is a force for good. Banning it – even temporarily – is a mistake," he wrote on X.

Users have called attention to the widespread consequences of banning the messaging app days before the re-test. One post shared widely, and reposted by Durov, said a NEET postgraduate aspirant's notes, videos and paid study groups had all been on Telegram, which he is now unable to access. The user wrote, "He's stuck messaging pirated-content scammers just to access what he already paid for. To stop one leaked NEET UG paper, you broke access for thousands of honest aspirants."

my brother’s NEET PG notes, videos and paid study groups were all on telegram

telegram got banned. so now he’s stuck messaging pirated-content scammers just to access what he already paid for

to stop one leaked NEET UG paper, you broke access for thousands of honest aspirants… https://t.co/vfj00h3z81 pic.twitter.com/LkQGPcLRWS

— Apurva Jain (@apurvajain24) June 16, 2026

Durov further argued that bans are structurally ineffective. "Banning social media for teenagers only puts them in greater danger. Teens are forced to switch to VPNs and unlock far worse illegal content. We’ve seen this before. When the Russian government banned Telegram, 95% of Russian teenagers kept using it. They just moved to VPNs," he said on X.

He also reposted Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF)'s statement on the Telegram ban calling it "a band aid solution" and a "disproportionate answer to exam fraud."

'New trick'

The ban has drawn widespread political criticism.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi took to social media to condemn the ban, calling it "Modi government's new trick to stop paper leaks." He framed it as an effort to put restrictions on the victims rather than holding the perpetrators accountable. Stating that millions of students depended on the app for notes, test series, discussions and preparation, he questioned how the ban addressed the underlying issues.

Gandhi underscored the inadequacy of the measures. "Not a single strike at the root of the disease, because the paper leak mafia is thriving under this very government’s watch, and making the youth cry tears of blood. Modi ji – drop the theatrics. Strike at the mafia, not the students," he added.

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