India's government has announced that it has suspended the use of the Telegram messaging app until next Monday. The move comes amid ongoing turmoil surrounding a major university entrance exam.
The National Testing Agency announced on Tuesday that Telegram is banned until June 22, a day after a re-exam will be given for entrance to undergraduate medical college. The original exam was cancelled last month amid a cheating scandal.
The agency said there had been cases of fraud on Telegram. It said users claimed they had access to the new exam's questions and sought money for them.
The restriction was issued under a provision of the country's IT law, which allows the government to block access to online sites in the interest of the "sovereignty and integrity of India."
The agency scrapped the original test due to the suspected leak of exam questions. The cancellation led to student protests.
An Indian medical student says, "If question papers are getting leaked in our country, then it is a failure of our system and restricting social media apps will not help."
The ban also drew criticism from the company. Telegram CEO Pavel Durov said it will affect more than 150 million users in India. He added that the measure solves nothing because "the leaks just moved to other apps."
Local media reported that Telegram has filed a case for the ban to be overturned.