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Indian court upholds temporary Telegram ban over exam leaks
A New Delhi court rejected Telegram's appeal against a temporary ban imposed after officials said channels on the app sold leaked undergraduate entrance exam questions. The ruling follows the app's removal from Indian app stores earlier this week.
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An Indian court rejected Telegram's appeal against a temporary ban on the messaging app. The New Delhi High Court issued the ruling on Friday after a closed-door hearing between the company and government officials. India blocked the app over allegations that channels on the platform were selling leaked questions for undergraduate medical entrance exams.
Officials said even fake questions could mislead candidates. The ban took the app offline and removed it from app stores earlier this week. A month earlier, India cancelled the results of the same test after similar leak allegations.
Court findings The court said the government orders were reasoned and followed legal procedure. Telegram had argued the ban was one-sided and inaccurate, stating it omitted details of the company's proactive content removal. Telegram said it took down more than 900 links involving unlawful exam-related content.
Officials told the company it had not acted fast enough to remove accounts selling exam papers.
Market context India was Telegram's largest market with more than 150 million users before the ban. The company founder said the action penalised users even though the leaked questions had already circulated elsewhere. India joins China and Iran, which have maintained long-term bans on the app since 2015 and 2018, respectively.
