Telegram Under Lens Over Alleged Betting & Extortion On The Platform: Report

Instant messaging platform Telegram is reportedly being scrutinised by the government over allegations of extortion and gambling. 

A Moneycontrol report, citing a government official, said that the Centre could mull banning the Dubai based app in India on the basis of the probe’s findings. 

The investigation is reportedly being led by the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) under the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY).

“The I4C under MHA and MeitY have been looking into P2P communications on Telegram,” a government official told the publication.  

This isn’t the first time that the company has ended up in regulatory troubles in India. Earlier this year in January, the Delhi High Court (Delhi HC) ordered the platform to remove or block access to accounts allegedly used for cheating people by using the name of private equity firms Peak XV Partners and Sequoia Capital.

Its tenure in India has seen it land in multiple controversies throughout the year. For instance, reports back in 2019 highlighted that Telegram lacked proper cybersecurity against spyware and viruses for users. 

Besides, the platform is also a host to rampant piracy. In many such instances, the messaging app has escaped by evoking the Information Technology Act. Telegram has repeatedly claimed to be an intermediary and evaded any responsibility for the content being circulated.

The probe comes at a time when Telegram’s CEO Pavel Durov is also behind bars in France. Durov was arrested at the Paris airport over allegations that his messaging app facilitates criminality including money laundering and drug trafficking on August 25.

“It is absurd to claim that a platform or its owner are responsible for abuse of that platform,” Telegram said in a post on X after Durov’s arrest. 

However, investigations on Telegram come at a time when the government has upped the ante for players engaged in illegal activities like gambling or extortion which often sees platforms like Telegram becoming a conduit for bad actors to spread social malice. 

For a user to get involved in betting on Telegram, they have to join groups and channels where tipsters share their predictions. These can range from free advice to premium tips, depending on the tipster’s service

About a week ago, the directorate of enforcement (ED) initiated a crackdown on gambling apps operating in India by handlers settled abroad. More than two dozen offshore gaming applications are currently under ED’s scanner for remitting and round-tripping funds. These offshore gambling apps have caused gamblers to incur losses to the tunes of INR 1 Lakh Cr.

Besides, on August 19, conducted searches at 20 premises across multiple cities in connection with a money laundering probe into online betting platform “magicwin”.

Despite the Centre’s efforts to clamp down on online betting, India’s online gambling market is projected to touch the $5.49 Bn mark by 2032, as per a report by IMARC Group.