Telegram Ban in India Leads to Surge in VPN Usage and Alternative Messaging App Downloads
Following India's week-long ban on Telegram due to exam-related fraud concerns, users have significantly increased their use of VPN services and alternative messaging apps.
India's recent decision to temporarily ban the messaging app Telegram has resulted in a notable increase in the use of virtual private networks (VPNs) and alternative messaging platforms. The ban, which was announced due to concerns about exam-related fraud, is set to last until June 22. App intelligence firm Appfigures reported a significant spike in VPN downloads on the day the restriction was imposed, marking the highest daily downloads for VPN apps in India since at least the beginning of 2025.
On the day the ban was announced, downloads of major VPN applications surged by 49%, rising from an average of 139,000 to 208,000 downloads per day. Among the VPNs that saw the largest increases, Proton VPN experienced a 113% jump in downloads on the Apple App Store, while Turbo VPN saw an 85% increase. On Google Play, Proton VPN's downloads rose by 64%, and Turbo VPN's by 35%. Other notable increases included NordVPN, which saw a 41% rise in App Store downloads, and ExpressVPN, which gained 31% on Google Play.
The rise in demand for VPNs followed the Indian government's decision to restrict Telegram, citing concerns that fraudsters were using the platform to exploit candidates preparing for the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET), the country's largest entrance exam. The government stated that the restriction was necessary to prevent the spread of fake exam papers and related scams. In response, Telegram filed a challenge against the ban in the Delhi High Court, arguing that authorities should focus on specific content rather than blocking the entire platform. However, the court upheld the government's restriction on Friday.
Following the Telegram ban, Proton VPN reported a 120% increase in daily registrations from India on Wednesday, with hourly sign-ups peaking at 150% above normal levels on Tuesday evening. Windscribe, a Canadian VPN service, noted a similar trend, with sign-ups from India reaching about 100% above baseline levels and first-time downloads of its iOS app increasing by approximately 89%. Rebecca Rosenberg, Windscribe's growth operations manager, explained that such spikes typically occur in regions where specific apps are banned or where internet access is restricted.
Surfshark also observed a 30% increase in connectivity from India since the ban was announced. Sensor Tower reported that overall downloads across the VPN app category in India rose by 10% day-over-day on June 17, reversing a previous decline seen over the prior two weeks. Laura Tyrylyte, a privacy advocate at NordVPN, indicated that users are becoming more adept at using circumvention tools and are responding more swiftly to online restrictions than in the past.
In addition to increased VPN usage, many users began exploring alternatives to Telegram. Appfigures indicated that downloads of the messaging app Signal surged by 72% on the Apple App Store and 322% on Google Play following the restriction. Viber also saw a significant increase in downloads, with a 216% rise on the App Store. The Telegram-related messaging app iMe experienced one of the most dramatic increases, with its Google Play downloads jumping from an average of about 827 to 50,900 on June 16.
Despite the ban, Telegram's daily active users in India actually increased by 17% on the day the restriction was announced, marking the app's largest day-over-day growth in the country since a major outage of Meta's services in 2021. Data from Cloudflare Radar showed a sharp rise in DNS requests for Telegram domains in India in the days following the announcement, although higher DNS traffic does not necessarily indicate successful access to the platform.
Telegram emphasized its cooperation with authorities during the hearings in the Delhi High Court, stating that it had removed channels identified by the government. The company questioned the necessity of a blanket ban affecting its more than 150 million users in India. In defense of the restriction, government lawyers described it as a temporary measure linked to the NEET retest, with Solicitor General Tushar Mehta arguing that while a permanent ban could raise proportionality concerns, this temporary restriction had a logical connection to its intended goals.
The Delhi High Court concluded on Friday that authorities had followed the proper procedures given the emergency nature of the order. According to Surfshark’s Internet Shutdown Tracker, Telegram is currently blocked in 13 countries and has faced disruptions in at least 40 others over the years. Previous restrictions have often led to a surge in demand for circumvention tools, with Sensor Tower reporting a 40% increase in VPN downloads in the U.S. during a brief TikTok removal in 2025. Windscribe noted that similar patterns have emerged in response to restrictions in nations like Iran and Russia.
