Telegram messaging app, which has over 5 million registered users in India, may face a ban. This come after the Centre launched an extortion and gambling probe against the company.
The future of the messaging app in India will depend on the findings of the investigation. Moneycontrol had earlier reported that both Ministry of Home Affairs and Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology have launched a probe and are looking into company’s P2P communications.
An official had told Moneycontrol that the ministries are specifically looking into the involvement of Telegram in criminal activities such as gambling and extortion. So far, Telegram has not issued a statement regarding the probe.
While India is investigation the company, its boss Pavel Durov was arrested in Paris recently. The Telegram founder was arrested over moderation policies, the French officials said.
The French authorities have been probing lack of moderators on the messaging app. The officials say that such situation facilitate criminal activity without any detection.
Meanwhile, a PTI report said, "In light of what has happened in France, IT Ministry has asked Ministry of Home Affairs to check on complaints pending against Telegram and what action can be taken."
The report citing sources said that IT Ministry is not an investigating agency in this regard, and that even CERT-In under the Ministry focuses on cybersecurity offences not cybercrimes per se.
"The basic question here is are there any complaints, is there similar situation in India, and what is the status, and what action is required," PTI quoted the sources as saying.
(With PTI inputs)
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