India’s central government has imposed a temporary restriction on Telegram to curb rumors and fraud over question-paper leaks surrounding the re-examination for NEET-UG, the country’s medical entrance test. The National Testing Agency (NTA) has welcomed the decision.
India’s Education Ministry said in a statement on Tuesday (June 16) that Telegram had been used to defraud examinees, and that the platform’s use in India had been restricted for a specific and limited period.
The statement added that the decision was taken under a provision of the Information Technology Act. Under that provision, the government may block access to any online platform or website in the interest of the country’s sovereignty and integrity.
In a separate statement, the NTA said that, on its recommendation, India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) had imposed a temporary restriction on the use of Telegram until June 22. Telegram’s message-editing feature has also been ordered shut down in India until June 30.
The NTA said an organized network of fraudsters was using Telegram to spread false claims of question-paper leaks and extract money from students. The step was taken to stop such activities, it said.
The NTA said the message-editing feature was being used to fabricate evidence of fake question-paper leaks after exams had taken place.
According to its allegations, some channel administrators would edit old posts and attach exam question papers to them while leaving the post’s original timestamp unchanged. Those posts were then circulated as proof that the questions had been leaked before the exam. The NTA said that temporarily disabling the feature would make it harder to spread such misleading information.
The agency said the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), under India’s Home Ministry, was coordinating efforts against Telegram-based fraud and rumors. Several Telegram channels and automated accounts operating under the pretext of supplying NEET question papers have already been shut down, it said.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report