The Indian government is investigating Telegram over its alleged misuse in criminal activities such as extortion and gambling, a government official said, adding the messaging app could even be banned depending on the probe’s findings.
The development comes days after Pavel Durov, the 39-year-old founder and CEO of Telegram, was arrested in Paris on August 24 over the app’s moderation policies. Reports said he was detained for failing to prevent criminal activities on the app.
"The Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre (I4C) (under MHA) and MeitY have been looking into P2P communications on Telegram," a government official told Moneycontrol on August 25 on condition of anonymity.
The probe, being conducted by the ministry of home affairs and the ministry of electronics and information technology (MeitY), was specifically looking into criminal activities such as extortion and gambling, the official said.
The official did not rule out the platform, which has more than 5 million registered users in India, being blocked but said the decision would be based on what the probe throws up.
Moneycontrol has reached out to Telegram for comments and the story will be updated when the response comes in.
In recent years, Telegram and some other social media platforms have emerged as breeding grounds for criminal activities, including scams that have cost citizens crores of rupees.
Telegram was in the news recently over the UGC-NEET controversy, which led to student protests and forced the Supreme Court to intervene. The question paper for the medical entrance exam was leaked and was allegedly widely shared on Telegram, an encrypted messaging app.
The paper was being sold for anywhere between Rs 5,000 and Rs 10,000 on the platform, according to reports.
The investigation
The violations that I4C and MeitY are investigating are not related to the Information Technology (IT) Rules.
"The platform is compliant with the IT rules," the official said.
The IT rules require platforms such as Telegram to appoint a nodal officer and a chief compliance officer and publish monthly compliance reports.
"There is difficulty in dealing with Telegram because they have no presence in India," the source official said. Authorities often face challenges in investigating platforms that do not have operations in India.
The absence of a local office hinders direct communication, complicating efforts to request user data.
"We will examine the kind of material that we get and based on our laws, we will come to a conclusion," the official said.
Durov was arrested at Bourget airport outside Paris by French authorities who have been reportedly investigating the lack of moderators on Telegram.
The situation allegedly allowed criminal activity to go on undeterred on the messaging app, reports said.
In a statement early on August 26, the company said, "Telegram CEO Pavel Durov has nothing to hide and travels frequently in Europe. Almost a billion users globally use Telegram as a means of communication and as a source of vital information. We’re awaiting a prompt resolution of this situation. Telegram is with you all... It is absurd to claim that a platform or its owner is responsible for abuse of that platform."
Chequered past
This is not the first time that Telegram has faced scrutiny in India.
In October, the IT ministry issued notices to Telegram and some other social media firms, directing them to remove child sexual abuse material (CSAM) from their platforms.
On May 23, the government, based on the recommendations of the home ministry, blocked several encrypted messaging platforms such as Briar, Element, Germany-based Crypviser, UK-based Enigma, Switzerland-based SafeSwiss and AWS-owned Wickr me.
Also read: Hoax bomb threats, vexed cops: Why India wants to block ProtonMail, and is it justified
Recently, the IT ministry was looking at blocking the end-to-end encrypted email platform Proton Mail, which was being abused to send hoax bomb threats to schools, malls and even airports.
Swiss authorities had to intervene to prevent the government from going ahead with the ban.
Support for Durov
The Durov’s arrest has been slammed by prominent tech leaders.
Former NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden called the arrest an "assault on the basic human rights of speech and association".
American entrepreneur Balaji Srinivasan said the French government's actions were more about control than crime prevention.
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin said that while he had criticised Telegram’s approach to encryption in the past, the arrest raised concerns about the future of communication freedom in Europe.
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