Telegram is being investigated for criminal activities like extortion and gambling and the messaging app may potentially be banned based on the findings of the investigation, a government official has told Moneycontrol.
The revelation was made public shortly after 39-year-old Pavel Durov, the creator and CEO of Telegram, was arrested in Paris on August 24 in relation to the moderation policies of the app. According to reports, he was put under arrest for not stopping illegal activity on the app.
On August 25, a government official informed Moneycontrol, “The Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre (I4C) (under MHA) and MeitY have been looking into P2P communications on Telegram.”
According to the official, the ministry of home affairs and the ministry of electronics and information technology (MeitY) were conducting an investigation that was mainly looking into criminal activities including gambling and extortion.
The official stated that the decision would be based on the results of the investigation, but he did not rule out banning the app, which has more than 5 million registered users in India.