Telegram, a popular messaging app known for its resistance to government scrutiny, has been used widely by protesters and news organizations evading authoritarian control. However, it has also been accused of enabling terrorism, crime and disinformation.
Governments around the world have tried to limit Telegram through bans, restrictions and criminal investigations, including in France, where its creator has faced criminal charges.
The app was banned by Russia, where it had been used for political dissent; restricted from government-issued devices in Ukraine over national security reasons; and temporarily suspended in Brazil for what the authorities said was its failure to curb illicit activities.
In the latest example, India this week banned the app until June 22 after finding that it had been used in a fraudulent effort to sell what users claimed to be leaked pages from an upcoming national medical college entrance exam.
Here’s a partial list of places where Telegram has faced regulatory hurdles.
India
India, among Telegram’s largest markets with over 150 million users, temporarily banned Telegram over what the government called a last-ditch attempt to halt an effort to defraud students preparing for the entrance exam for medical colleges.
Millions of candidates took the test in May. But India’s National Testing Agency said on Tuesday that Telegram channels had sold what they called leaked exam questions to candidates and their families that turned out to be fake. It also scrapped the scores from the exam and scheduled a retest for Sunday.
The move has fueled dissatisfaction and protests among young people who accuse the government of mismanaging the exam system.
Pavel Durov, the founder of Telegram, criticized the ban, writing on X that it punished ordinary Telegram users and not the people defrauding exam takers. He added that Telegram had removed hundreds of channels related to exam materials and related scams in India.
Russia
Russia, where Mr. Durov was born, has also banned Telegram. In 2018, a Russian court allowed the government to block Telegram after the app refused to give Russian security services access to users’ encrypted messages. Mr. Durov, who had fled the country in 2014, said that the app’s encryption systems made it impossible for the company to comply with the government’s demands.
The move faced technical hurdles. It also put the Kremlin in an awkward position because Telegram was widely used by Russian government agencies. By 2020, Russia lifted its ban saying Telegram had agreed to step up efforts to block extremist content, among other demands.
Earlier this year, the Russian government tried again to block Telegram as part of a wider crackdown on free speech on the internet during the war against Ukraine. Russia’s communications regulator accused Telegram of failing to combat fraud, protect personal data and prevent the app from being used by terrorists and criminals.
Mr. Durov pushed back, saying that the government was restricting Telegram access to force Russians to switch to a state-controlled app he said had been “built for surveillance and political censorship.” Telegram is now effectively blocked in the country.
Ukraine
During Russia’s war on Ukraine, Telegram has been a lifeline for millions of Ukrainians seeking information about impending Russian attacks or looking for food and medical aid. But Ukrainian officials have also expressed concern that the platform was enabling Russian disinformation and spying.
The Ukrainian authorities in 2024 banned military and government officials, along with people working on critical infrastructure, from using Telegram on their work phones out of security concerns. Some officials proposed rules requiring Telegram to disclose who is behind large anonymous channels.
Europe
Telegram has run into hurdles in other European nations. In 2023, Norway’s justice minister said in an official notice that state officials should not have Telegram or TikTok on their work devices because the government saw the apps as threats to national security.
In France, the authorities arrested Mr. Durov when he landed there in 2024, and charged him with a wide range of crimes for failing to prevent illicit activity on the app. He was also barred from leaving the country. Telegram played a role in multiple criminal cases in France tied to child sexual abuse, drug trafficking and online hate crimes.
Telegram said at the time that it abided by European Union laws, and that it was absurd to claim that a platform or its owner was responsible for abuse of that platform.
Mr. Durov was temporarily allowed to leave France last year. He said at the time that he had returned home to Dubai.
Brazil
Brazil’s Supreme Court banned Telegram nationwide in 2022 ahead of a presidential election. It said that the app had failed to comply with orders to remove accounts tied to a supporter of former President Jair Bolsonaro who was being investigated for spreading disinformation and threatening Supreme Court judges.
Mr. Durov said in an apology at the time that Telegram hadn’t always responded to the Brazilian Supreme Court because the company had missed the court’s emails.
The ban was lifted when Telegram complied with court orders. Another Brazilian judge in 2023 ordered that Telegram be blocked nationwide after it failed to comply with court orders demanding complete user data from neo-Nazi group chats. Telegram told the police at the time that the groups had been deleted and that it could not recover the data.
An appeals court later lifted that suspension but upheld a hefty fine.
Hari Kumar contributed reporting.
