New Delhi, 17 June

Messaging app Telegram CEO Pavel Durov has alleged that Reliance Group, in which Meta has a partial stake, may have lobbied, along with its competitor WhatsApp, to impose a ban on the company's app in India.

He also accused Reliance of sabotaging access to Telegram for millions of users outside India (including the UAE).

A senior telecom industry source, who did not wish to be named, termed the allegations as "fake news" as Durov has confused Reliance Communications with Reliance Industries Ltd.

"Indian telecom Reliance is sabotaging access to Telegram for millions of users OUTSIDE India (including the UAE) via a rogue method called 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 said in a social media post on X.

Meta has a small stake in the digital arm of Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) -- Jio, while subsea cables are operated by another group, Reliance Communications, which is not part of RIL.

Durov said network operators are advised to reject unauthorised BGP announcements from Reliance (AS18101) to prevent route hijacks and ensure stable Internet access for their users.

"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," he said.

The Indian government has ordered Google and Apple to delist the Telegram app from their app stores till June 22 to check paper leaks during the upcoming re-examination of the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET-UG) on June 21.

The nationwide examination conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA) for admission to undergraduate medical institutes. The agency cancelled the previous exam held on May 3 amid allegations of paper leak.

Besides, a separate direction requires Telegram to disable in India the message-editing feature for already-posted messages till June 30, addressing the specific structural feature through which the platform has been used to fabricate after-the-event "paper leak" evidence in respect of national examinations.

The industry source, who did not wish to be named, said Durov's own series of posts makes it clear that the company in question is RCom.

"The allegations he is making regarding Meta, however, relate to an entirely different company -- Jio. These are separate entities. 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.

An email query sent to Telegram, RCom, Jio, Meta and WhatsApp in this regard did not elicit any immediate reply.