The Indian government has blocked Telegram and ordered the company to disable its message-editing feature ahead of the NEET-UG re-examination on June 21. The move targets organised fraud operations running on the app, which exploited a design vulnerability to fabricate evidence of paper leaks.
The National Testing Agency (NTA) said channel administrators had exploited Telegram's architecture to upload a blank document before an examination and replace it with the actual question paper afterwards, preserving the original, pre-exam timestamp.
Critics and Telegram have argued that the blanket block penalises millions of ordinary users who have no connection to exam fraud.
Telegram has had multiple run-ins with governments across the world, including France, Brazil, and Russia, over allegations of non-compliance with court orders and failure to remove illegal content from the app.
Law enforcement agencies distinguish Telegram from other messaging apps due to its features that function like unmoderated mass broadcasting, including mass reach, built-in search, and static timestamp.
Technical demonstrations have shown how scammers exploit the system by creating a public Telegram channel, attaching a discussion group, and uploading a blank document before an examination, which is then replaced with the actual question paper after the exam.
