The National Testing Agency warned Telegram about misuse of its features for exam fraud before the government blocked the app nationwide until June 22.
Abhishek Singh, Director-General of the NTA, said representatives of the messaging app were called for meetings at the highest levels and alerted to how its group and channel features enable fake paper leak claims. The Electronics and Information Technology Ministry issued the blanket ban and separately directed Telegram to disable its message-editing feature for Indian users until June 30.
The measures aim to prevent fabricated leaks from causing panic ahead of the NEET re-examination scheduled for June 21. Singh noted that earlier requests to make edited timestamps visible in linked groups and to improve naming filters had not been addressed.
Pavel Durov posted on X that the edited label would be made more visible, though the change is not yet apparent in the app. Cybersecurity experts and the Internet Freedom Foundation questioned the proportionality of a full ban, arguing that targeted restrictions on editing during exam periods would better balance exam integrity and user access.
