The Union government claimed before the Delhi High Court on Thursday that messaging platform Telegram was becoming the “new dark web”, enabling illegal activities and linking criminals, Bar and Bench reported.
“Criminals have rapidly adopted Telegram to post links on channels that connect to dark web forums through deep web links, making it hard for the authorities to track and attribute criminals,” the legal news outlet quoted the government as having told the court.
The dark web is a hidden layer of the internet that cannot be accessed through regular search engines and browsers.
The government made the claim in an affidavit filed to oppose Telegram’s petition challenging an order issued on Tuesday restricting access to its services in India until June 22, ahead of the undergraduate National Eligibility cum Entrance Test re-examination.
The court had asked the government about the extent of the alleged illegal activity on Telegram, noting that any digital service could be misused.
On Tuesday, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology restricted access to Telegram till June 22, the day after the re-examination of the entrance test for medical college admissions concludes.
The ministry also directed the platform, under the Information Technology Rules, to disable its message-editing feature till June 30. The National Testing Agency, which conducts the exam, alleged that the feature was…
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