India blocks Telegram over leaked medical entrance exam
India has temporarily blocked Telegram, saying the platform was used by “cheating rackets to defraud candidates” sitting the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET), the country’s main medical-school entrance exam. Authorities cancelled the exam last month after finding questions had leaked in advance, and have scheduled a retake for 21 June. The government said it ordered the block as a “measure of last resort” after earlier requests to remove leaked material failed, and also told the platform to disable message editing.
The leak fed wider anger: a satirical online campaign, the Cockroach Janta Party, has mobilised students demanding the education minister’s resignation. Telegram founder Pavel Durov pushed back, arguing the block “punishes 150M+ ordinary Telegram users in India” while the leaked content simply “moved to other apps” — the recurring problem with platform-level bans, which tend to displace activity rather than stop it. The restriction is set to lift early next week.