New Delhi: The Union government has informed the Delhi High Court that the Telegram messaging app is being misused for a range of illegal activities, including terrorism, cybercrime and drug trafficking.
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has issued a notification imposing a temporary restriction on Telegram till June 22, citing a recommendation from the National Testing Agency (NTA) to curb networks allegedly involved in the NEET question paper leak and related exam fraud.
Telegram has challenged the order in the High Court, stating it has complied with government requests and that channels flagged as illegal have already been removed. The company sought urgent relief against the interim curbs.
In its reply, the Centre said Telegram has effectively become a “new dark web” used to connect offenders, with channels posting links that lead to dark web systems through fraudulent links. It argued that the platform’s privacy features make monitoring and identifying offenders difficult.
The government also flagged concerns over content linked to child sexual abuse, online scams, separatism and public order issues, as well as piracy of films, web series and copyrighted books causing revenue loss and intellectual property violations. It said multiple complaints were received about NEET-related content being circulated via Telegram channels, bots and groups, and that despite a notice issued on June 3, action to block such channels was not taken; Telegram, it added, acknowledged difficulties in proactively detecting such content.
