India's Telegram Ban: A Clash Over Exam Leaks and Platform Responsibility

India privately rebuked Telegram for not proactively removing accounts offering purported leaked exam papers while the company accused New Delhi of misrepresenting meeting records, an impasse that led to an unprecedented ban of the app, documents show.

Telegram has challenged the ban by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government in the Delhi High Court. The government invoked emergency powers to block Telegram in the country until June 22 amid concerns the platform was being abused to defraud candidates for NEET, a prestigious national entrance test for medical colleges.

ALSO READ | Telegram challenges temporary ban, saying it will hurt free speech rights

The exam results were cancelled in May on suspicion that question papers were leaked, and the ‌test been rescheduled for ⁠June ⁠21.

Telegram, which has 150 million users in India, its biggest market, has said in its court papers the ban undermines constitutional protections and free speech rights. The fight marks the latest tussle between a tech company and Modi after the government fought Elon Musk's X last year in court over the company's strict restrictions on taking down content.

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Documents seen by Reuters show the June 16 Telegram ban order followed two weeks of back-and-forth exchanges and meetings between India's IT ministry and company officials, with New Delhi accusing Telegram of "inaction" on channels like "NEET PAPER LEAKED" and "Paper Leaked NEET" which it said clearly indicated their suspicious nature. Some demanded money by claiming they could provide the "full (exam) paper".

Telegram retorted in subsequent e-mails, saying ⁠it was "surprised ‌at the suggestion that it has been inactive in addressing unlawful content" and it does not permit the use of its services for any such activity.

India's IT ministry and Telegram did not respond to Reuters queries.

WhatsApp is the most popular messaging ⁠app in India with over 500 million users, but Telegram has a unique attraction. Its groups can hold up to 200,000 members - far beyond WhatsApp's cap of 1,024, and it allows users to interact without exposing a phone number.

Those features have also made it a favoured platform for fraud and other illicit trade, critics say, though Telegram denies these allegations and says it acts promptly against rogue elements.

Telegram expressing frustration

The Indian government says the issue of purported frauds linked to the NEET exam is "most pronounced on Telegram".

The undergraduate medical entrance exam at the centre of the dispute is taken by more than 2 million students, and the cancellation of the results caused a political storm, including demands for the resignation of the country's education minister.

Telegram's founder ‌Pavel Durov has said the Indian government's ban "is a mistake" which punishes its users while leaks can just move to other apps.

It has also taken a dig at the move without referring to India.

"Over 300,000 people die of drowning each year. In order to protect society, it is now ⁠illegal to consume or possess water," Telegram said in one post on its X account.

Fight over meeting record

Behind closed doors, tensions rose between Telegram and Indian officials after a June 3 meeting, with the company saying in an e-mail to Indian officials that minutes of the meeting did not accurately capture their discussions.

The government records said Telegram stated in the meeting it had limitations in proactively detecting "more subjective" content linked to exams, instead of "objective issues" like child sexual material and pornography.

Telegram rebutted, writing in a June 5 e-mail that it was not that it didn't have proactive measures for such content, but it was only that they require more moderation.

In its court petition against the ban, the messaging app has taken stronger objection to the government's minutes, calling them a "one-sided and inaccurate account of the discussions" that "deliberately" omitted details of the company's proactive processes.

The government is yet respond to those allegations in court.