NEW DELHI: Telegram founder and CEO Pavel Durov on Wednesday alleged that Reliance may have been involved in efforts to ban the messaging platform in India and accused an affiliate of disrupting Telegram's internet access outside the country, claims that an industry source dismissed as "fake news" based on confusion between two separate Reliance group companies.
In a post on social media platform X, Durov alleged that Indian telecom operator Reliance was "sabotaging access" to Telegram for millions of users outside India, including in the United Arab Emirates, through a technique known as Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) hijacking.
"The sabotage seems intentional, as Reliance has ignored multiple reports. This may be part of a competitive war, as Reliance is partially owned by Meta, the company behind WhatsApp," Durov wrote.
He further said he would not be surprised if "Reliance/WhatsApp" were behind lobbying efforts to ban Telegram in India.
"Network operators are advised to reject unauthorised BGP announcements from Reliance (AS18101) to prevent route hijacks and ensure stable Internet access for their users," he said. "Such abuse of global Internet routing is alarming. I wouldn't be surprised if Reliance/ WhatsApp were also behind the recent lobbying effort to ban Telegram in India."
A senior telecom industry source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Durov appeared to have conflated two separate companies -- Reliance Communications and Reliance Industries' telecom arm Jio.
According to Durov's post, the autonomous system number cited in the alleged BGP-routing issue belongs to Reliance Communications, the source said. Reliance Communications is not part of Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), whose digital unit Jio received a minority investment from Meta in 2020.
"Meta is only a minority investor in Jio and has no role in its day-to-day operations or management. Conflating the two demonstrates either a lack of understanding of the sector or a deliberate attempt to spread misinformation," the source said.
The allegations come amid heightened scrutiny of Telegram in India. The government has directed Apple and Google to delist the Telegram application from their app stores until June 22, according to people familiar with the matter, as authorities seek to prevent the circulation of examination material linked to the re-test of the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET-UG).
The fresh examination is scheduled for June 21 after the National Testing Agency cancelled an earlier test held on May 3 following allegations of a paper leak.
Separately, Telegram has been directed to disable its message-editing feature for previously posted messages in India until June 30, a measure aimed at preventing the creation of retrospective content that could be used to fabricate evidence of question-paper leaks.
Telegram, Reliance Communications, Jio, Meta and WhatsApp did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
In a separate post, Durov criticised India's IT ministry's ban of Telegram for one week "because some users shared leaked exam questions."
"This punishes 150M+ ordinary Telegram users in India - not the insiders who leaked the exam materials," he said. "And the ban hasn't stopped anything. The leaks just moved to other apps."
He went on to state that over the past few weeks, Telegram has removed hundreds of channels sharing leaked exam materials and related scams in India.
"We're also making the 'edited' label more visible to prevent backdating scams," he said. "Telegram is a force for good. Banning it - even temporarily - is a mistake."