Pavel Durov criticises NTA curbs, says Telegram ban punishes 150 million Indian users

“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,” Durov wrote in a post on X on Tuesday.

The remarks come after the National Testing Agency (NTA) announced temporary restrictions on Telegram in India until June 22 and directed the platform to disable message editing until June 30. The measures were introduced ahead of the NEET UG 2026 re-examination scheduled for June 21.

Per the NTA, cheating networks had been using Telegram to circulate fake claims of a NEET paper leak and fabricate evidence intended to mislead candidates and trigger public confusion. The agency said the restrictions are aimed at preventing the spread of misinformation, protecting the integrity of the examination process, and maintaining public order.

The NTA reiterated that no exam paper exists outside the secured examination chain and urged students and parents to rely only on official communications regarding the examination. It also advised the public to report fraud, impersonation, or misinformation through the national cybercrime portal and helpline.

Durov contended that blocking Telegram is an ineffective response because those seeking to share leaked material can easily move to other platforms. He defended the platform, noting that it had already removed hundreds of channels linked to leaked exam material and related scams in India in recent weeks. He also highlighted platform changes aimed at making edited messages more clearly identifiable, to reduce fraud.

Scammers are accused of editing old text messages to paste questions from recent examinations that had already been completed. Doing so, it is alleged, made it seem like they had prior access to leaked question papers, when that was not actually the case.