Telegram blocked before NEET retest

The Centre has blocked Telegram across India until June 22 and ordered the platform to disable its messageediting feature until June 30two separate interventions on NTA's recommendations, the first to disrupt organised fraud ahead of the NEET-UG 2026 re-examination on June 21, the second to prevent the retroactive fabrication of paper-leak evidence.

- Sanjay Maurya and Sejal Sharma

The editing-feature restriction addresses a technique NTA, in a statement describing the orders, said had been used to manufacture false proof of advance leaks.

A channel administrator posts an innocuous message before an examination, then edits it after the exam to insert the actual question paper - Telegram's editing function does not alter the message's original timestamp, making the doctored post appear to have predated the examination. "The resulting chat is then circulated as purported evidence that the paper was in circulation before the examination," NTA said.

The ministry of electronics and information technology (MeitY) issued both orders under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act. A Meity official, who asked not to be named, confirmed the orders exist and that a copy had been shared with NTA, but said they were not publicly available - directions under Section 69A are treated as confidential under blocking rules.

According to people aware of the matter, Apple and Google received directives from Meity to remove Telegram from their respective app stores in India, while several major ISPS enforced blocks that prevented the application from establishing connection. Telecom operators were also receiving batches of IP addresses to block from the government. "The catch is that Telegram can also change its IP address. When that happens, the government then sends us the latest IP addresses to block. So it's like a cat and mouse chase," said an executive of a major telecom company.