The Telegram messaging app, which has over 5 million registered users in India, may face a ban due to government concerns.
This news has come after the Centre has launched an extortion and gambling probe against the country and are looking into the company’s P2P communications, as reported by Moneycontrol.
The investigation is reportedly being conducted by the Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre (I4C) under the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY).
This development comes just days after Telegram founder and CEO Pavel Durov was arrested in Paris on August 24th over his app’s moderation policies. According to reports, he was detained because he failed to prevent criminal activities on the app. Tech billionaire Elon Musk and whistleblower Edward Snowden have criticized the arrest.
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.”
Will Telegram get banned in India?
The future of the popular messaging app in India will depend on the findings of the investigation.
A government official conveyed to Moneycontrol on the condition of anonymity that they did not rule out the platform being blocked in India, but asserted that the decision would be based on what the probe discovers.
So far, Telegram has not issued any statement regarding the probe.
