Telegram founder Pavel Durov lobbed a serious accusation at India’s Reliance telecom group on June 17, claiming the company deliberately disrupted Telegram access for users outside of India, including those in the UAE. The alleged weapon of choice: BGP hijacking, a technique that reroutes internet traffic through unauthorized network announcements, effectively blocking users from reaching Telegram’s servers.

The accusation lands at a particularly charged moment. Indian authorities have imposed a temporary nationwide ban on Telegram until June 22, tied to concerns over examination-related fraud. Durov argues the ban punishes more than 150 million legitimate Indian Telegram users while doing nothing to actually solve the exam leak problem.

What is BGP hijacking and why does it matter

Think of the internet’s routing system like a postal service. Border Gateway Protocol, or BGP, is essentially the addressing system that tells data packets where to go. When a network operator issues a BGP announcement, it’s telling the rest of the internet: “Send traffic destined for these addresses through me.”

BGP hijacking is when someone issues false routing announcements, claiming ownership of IP addresses they don’t control. In English: it’s like someone slapping their return address on your mailbox so all your mail gets redirected to their house. The result is that users trying to reach a service like Telegram get sent to the wrong place, or nowhere at all.

Durov specifically pointed to improper routing announcements attributed to Reliance, referencing Rcom/AS18101, the autonomous system number associated with the telecom’s network. He claimed these announcements didn’t just affect Indian users, who were already subject to the government ban, but spilled over to disrupt Telegram access in other countries entirely.

Durov called on global network operators to reject the unauthorized routing announcements from Reliance as an urgent fix. The logic is straightforward: if other networks refuse to accept the bogus routes, traffic flows normally again and users outside India regain access.

The WhatsApp angle

Durov didn’t stop at accusing Reliance of technical sabotage. He went further, suggesting the disruption was a calculated move designed to benefit Meta’s WhatsApp. The implication is that Reliance, which has deep commercial ties to Meta through its Jio Platforms subsidiary, has a financial incentive to suppress Telegram’s growth in India.

Meta invested billions of dollars in Jio Platforms back in 2020, making it one of the largest foreign investments in an Indian company. WhatsApp is deeply integrated into Jio’s ecosystem, and India represents WhatsApp’s single largest market globally.

Durov framed the Telegram ban itself as misguided, arguing that blocking one platform over exam fraud merely pushes bad actors to other messaging apps. The fraudsters migrate. The legitimate users suffer.

Neither Reliance nor Meta has responded to the allegations. The claims of deliberate BGP hijacking and collusion remain unverified.