Key facts
- India temporarily restricted access to Telegram until June 22 over concerns about exam fraud.
- VPN app downloads in India saw a 49% increase on the day of the restriction.
- Proton VPN and Turbo VPN experienced substantial download surges.
- Downloads of alternative messaging apps like Signal and Viber also increased.
- Telegram is challenging the platform-wide ban in the Delhi High Court.
India's decision to temporarily restrict access to the messaging app Telegram has led to a significant surge in the download and registration of virtual private networks (VPNs) and alternative messaging applications within the country.
The restriction, which is in place until June 22, was imposed due to concerns that Telegram was being used by fraudsters to spread fake examination papers and scam candidates ahead of a re-test for the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET-UG), India's largest entrance examination.
App intelligence firm Appfigures reported that the day India announced the restriction saw the highest number of VPN app downloads in the country since the start of 2025, with a 49% increase from the recent daily average. Specific VPN services like Proton VPN and Turbo VPN experienced substantial download jumps, with Proton VPN's downloads on the App Store rising 113% and on Google Play climbing 64%. Other providers like NordVPN and ExpressVPN also saw notable increases.
This surge in demand propelled several VPN services up the app store charts. Proton VPN, for instance, climbed from 18th to 5th in Apple's Utilities rankings and from 8th to 2nd in Google Play's Tools category. Proton reported a 120% increase in daily registrations from India, and Windscribe, a Canadian VPN provider, noted a peak in signups approximately 100% above baseline levels.
Beyond VPNs, users also turned to alternative messaging apps. Downloads of Signal saw a significant rise, with a 72% increase on the App Store and a 322% increase on Google Play. Viber also experienced a 216% jump in App Store downloads. The Telegram-linked app iMe recorded a dramatic increase in Google Play downloads, from an average of 827 to 50,900 on June 16.
Despite the restriction, Telegram's daily active users in India rose by 17% on the day the measure was announced, its largest day-over-day increase since a Meta services outage in 2021. Cloudflare Radar noted a sharp increase in DNS requests for Telegram domains, though cautioned this could reflect repeated attempts to access the blocked platform.
Telegram has challenged the government's order in the Delhi High Court, arguing that authorities should target specific content rather than block the entire platform, which it states serves over 150 million users in India. Government lawyers, however, defended the measure as a temporary, event-linked response with a "logical nexus" to the objective of preventing exam-related fraud. The Delhi High Court has reserved its order and is expected to deliver a verdict on Friday.
The situation mirrors trends observed in other countries where governments have restricted app access, such as the U.S. when TikTok was briefly removed from app stores, and in countries like Iran and Russia.