Telegram CEO has accused Reliance of disrupting service by BGP hijacking. This affected millions of users in India and UAE. Durov linked this to the Meta-Reliance partnership, so that WhatsApp can benefit.
teLeeGram’s founder and CEO Pavel Durov has made a direct attack on India’s leading telecom company Reliance. According to an India Today report, Durov has alleged that Reliance is tampering with Telegram’s internet connectivity. He claimed that because of Reliance, users in many countries outside India are facing problems in using Telegram. Durov made these allegations through a post on social media platform X.
Allegation of hijacking ‘Border Gateway Protocol’ (BGP)
Durov alleged that Reliance was misdirecting Telegram’s network traffic using a technique called Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) hijacking. Durov claims that this has affected millions of users not only in India but also in countries like UAE.
Durov wrote, “Indian telecom company Reliance is causing service disruptions for millions of Telegram users outside India. We believe they are using unfair practices such as BGP hijacking to do so.”
Let us tell you that Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) is an important system of the Internet, which decides the best path to send data between different networks. In a way, we can consider it as the traffic control system of the Internet. BGP hijacking involves someone intentionally diverting Internet traffic, which is considered a serious problem in the world of cyber security.
Durov also alleged that despite receiving several complaints, Reliance has not given any response on this matter, so it may be being done intentionally. He indicated that this matter could be connected to the ongoing tough competition between Telegram and WhatsApp. He said that there is a business partnership between Meta (the company that owns WhatsApp) and Reliance, so it may be an attempt to benefit WhatsApp. However, as per India Today report, Reliance has not yet given any official response to Durov’s allegations.
Meanwhile, some restrictions were temporarily imposed on Telegram in India due to concerns of paper leak and fraud related to NEET 2026 re-examination. Durov also strongly criticized this move. He said that this action is causing problems to more than 15 crore common users, while the criminals move to other platforms.
Durov also said that he would not be surprised if Reliance and WhatsApp are jointly trying to ban Telegram in India. However, Durov has not presented any evidence to support his allegations. Now the tech world is waiting for independent technical investigation and official statements for more clarity in this matter.