The company's founder and CEO Pavel Durov has reacted to the temporary ban imposed by the Government of India on Telegram to stop rumors, fake messages and alleged networks related to the exam before the NEET-UG 2026 re-examination. The central government has decided to impose a temporary ban on Telegram from June 16 to June 22.
This step has been taken with the aim of preventing the spread of misinformation and fake claims during the NEET-UG 2026 re-examination process to be held on June 21. This action has been taken on the recommendation of the National Testing Agency.
India's IT ministry banned 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.
And the ban hasn't stopped anything. The leaks just moved to other apps. https://t.co/CzQWN4mXfb
—Pavel Durov (@durov) June 16, 2026
Pavel Durov posted on
At the same time, NTA has clarified that this step has not been taken due to any new paper leak incident. According to the agency, due to fake messages and misleading claims related to the examination, confusion and mental stress was being created among the candidates, to stop which this action was considered necessary.
NTA DG Abhishek Singh said that every necessary step will be taken to ensure fairness and transparency of the examination and any kind of irregularities will not be tolerated. Apart from this, the government has also assured that complete arrangements have been made for the security of Re-NEET.
