The Indian government is conducting an investigation into Telegram’s alleged usage in illegal activities such as extortion and gambling. As per the reports, the messaging app may be banned if the investigation’s results are confirmed.
The news comes only days after Pavel Durov, the 39-year-old founder and CEO of Telegram, was arrested in Paris on August 24th for the app’s moderation practices. He was held for failing to prevent illegal activity on the app. “The Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre (I4C) (under MHA) and MeitY have been looking into P2P communications on Telegram,” a government official was quoted as saying by Moneycontrol on August 25th.
He said that the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) were conducting the investigation, which focused on illicit acts such as extortion and gambling.
The official meanwhile refused to rule out blocking the platform, which has over 5 million registered users in India but stated that the decision will be based on the results of the investigation. In recent years, Telegram and other social media platforms have emerged as breeding grounds for criminal activity, including frauds that have cost citizens crores of rupees.
Telegram was recently in the headlines due to the UGC-NEET debate, which sparked student protests and prompted the Supreme Court to intervene. The question paper for the medical entrance exam was leaked and purportedly widely distributed over Telegram, an encrypted messaging service. According to reports, the paper was selling on the platform for anywhere from Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000.
Notably, the government is investigating the non-IT violations. “The platform is compliant with the IT rules,” the official stated. The IT guidelines require platforms like Telegram to establish a nodal officer and a chief compliance officer, as well as publish monthly compliance reports.
Authorities frequently have difficulties examining sites that do not operate in India. The lack of a local office impedes direct communication, hampering attempts to obtain user data. “We will examine the kind of material that we get and based on our laws, we will come to a conclusion,” the official stated.
Durov was arrested at Bourget airport outside Paris by French officials, who are examining Telegram’s lack of moderators. Durov was arrested for illicit behavior such as drug trafficking and the distribution of child sexual abuse images on the chat platform.
In a statement issued early on August 26th, the company stated, “Telegram CEO Pavel Durov has nothing to hide and travels frequently in Europe. Almost a billion users globally use Telegram as a means of communication and as a source of vital information. We’re awaiting a prompt resolution of this situation. Telegram is with you all… It is absurd to claim that a platform or its owner is responsible for abuse of that platform.”
Durov’s detention was strongly condemned by key tech personalities. Former NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden described the arrest as an assault on the fundamental human rights of speech and association.
Balaji Srinivasan, an American entrepreneur, claimed that the French government’s activities were more about control than crime prevention. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin stated that, while he had previously criticized Telegram’s encryption policy, the arrest sparked concerns about the future of European communication freedom.
This is not the first time Telegram has come under scrutiny in India. In October, the IT ministry sent letters to Telegram and other social media companies, urging them to remove child sexual abuse material (CSAM) from their platforms.
On May 23rd, the government, acting on the home ministry’s recommendations, prohibited many encrypted messaging networks, including Briar, Element, Germany-based Crypviser, UK-based Enigma, Switzerland-based SafeSwiss, and AWS-owned Wickr. Recently, the IT ministry considered shutting down Proton Mail, an end-to-end encrypted email platform that was being used to transmit false bomb threats to schools, malls, and even airports.
Telegram claims it has over 950 million active users. It is frequently used in France as a messaging tool, notably by some officials in the presidential palace and the ministry overseeing the Durov probe. However, French police during the discussion discovered that the application had been used by both terrorists and narcotics dealers for illegal purposes.
