Durov blames Indian billionaire for Telegram ban 

Russian-born tech billionaire Pavel Durov blamed Indian multinational conglomerate Reliance on Tuesday, as well as WhatsApp, for what he called a “lobbying effort” to get his messenger Telegram restricted in India. 

Telegram appealed to the Delhi High Court on Wednesday against the Indian government’s temporary restrictions on the app ahead of the rescheduled national medical entrance examination, NEET-UG 2026, on June 21. The court agreed to hear the matter on “an urgent basis.” 

But it looked like in his haste to criticize WhatsApp, Telegram’s biggest rival and the dominant messaging app in India, Durov missed some crucial details and trained his guns on the wrong party. 

“Indian telecom Reliance is sabotaging access to Telegram for millions of users OUTSIDE India (including the UAE) via a rogue method called BGP hijacking,” Durov said in the post.” The sabotage seems intentional, as Reliance has ignored multiple reports.” 

He claimed that this “may be part of a competitive war, as Reliance is partially owned by Meta – the company behind WhatsApp.” 

The Telegram owner shared a screenshot containing what looked like hacking logs as proof of the alleged sabotage. But it showed Reliance Communications, or RCom, a bankrupt entity owned by the Anil Ambani group.   

Meta’s partnership is with Reliance Industries, owned by billionaire Mukesh Ambani, prompting X users to point out the distinction to Durov. Mukesh is the elder brother of Anil Ambani.   

Meta’s WhatsApp is the top messaging platform in the country of 1.4 billion, which is also Telegram’s biggest market by downloads. Meta has a stake of about 10% in Jio Platforms, a unit of Reliance Industries. 

New Delhi restricted Telegram on the recommendation of the National Testing Agency (NTA), which oversees the conduct of the exam for admission to medical courses nationwide, for which hundreds of thousands of applicants appear every year. The test held in May was cancelled following alleged question paper leaks and a retest is scheduled for Sunday. 

The app has been barred until June 22 and the platform has been directed to disable its message-editing feature until June 30. 

The NTA said the curbs would prevent “cheating rackets” from using Telegram to spread false claims about question paper leaks concerning the retest. 

Reliance Industries, Meta, and RCom have not commented on Durov’s sabotage charges. 

The ban has triggered intense discussions on social media, but students and parents appear to want the authorities to focus on preventing question paper leaks.