The government made the claim in an affidavit opposing the messaging platform’s petition challenging the blocking order.
The Union government claimed before the Delhi High Court on Thursday that messaging platform Telegram was becoming the “new dark web”, enabling illegal activities and linking criminals, Bar and Bench reported.
“Criminals have rapidly adopted Telegram to post links on channels that connect to dark web forums through deep web links, making it hard for the authorities to track and attribute criminals,” the legal news outlet quoted the government as having told the court.
The dark web is a hidden layer of the internet that cannot be accessed through regular search engines and browsers.
The government made the claim in an affidavit filed to oppose Telegram’s petition challenging an order issued on Tuesday restricting access to its services in India until June 22, ahead of the undergraduate National Eligibility cum Entrance Test re-examination.
The court had asked the government about the extent of the alleged illegal activity on Telegram, noting that any digital service could be misused.
On Tuesday, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology restricted access to Telegram till June 22, the day after the re-examination of the entrance test for medical college admissions concludes.
The ministry also directed the platform, under the Information Technology Rules, to disable its message-editing feature till June 30. The National Testing Agency, which conducts the exam, alleged that the feature was used “to fabricate after-the-event ‘paper leak’ evidence”.
The “guess paper” contained around 410 questions, of which about 120 matched the questions asked in the chemistry section, according to the Rajasthan Police.
The Central Bureau of Investigation filed a first information report in the matter based on a complaint by the Union education ministry. It has invoked charges under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita pertaining to criminal conspiracy, cheating and criminal breach of trust, the Prevention of Corruption Act and the 2024 Public Examinations Prevention of Unfair Means Act.
The Opposition and the Cockroach Janta Party, a political campaign, has been demanding Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation for the alleged mismanagement in holding competitive exams.
The 2024 examination was also hit by allegations of paper leaks and irregular grace marks, leading to nationwide protests.
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