The Indian government\u2019s temporary restriction on the Telegram\nmessaging app has triggered a surge in downloads of virtual private\nnetwork (VPN) services and alternative messaging applications in the\ncountry. Data from app analytics firm Appfigures recorded that the day\nthe government announced the restriction became the day with the highest\nnumber of VPN downloads in India since at least the start of 2025.\nDownloads of major VPN applications rose 49 per cent from a daily\naverage of around 139,000 to 208,000, with services such as Proton VPN\nand Turbo VPN recording significant increases. NordVPN saw a 41 per cent\nrise on the App Store, while ExpressVPN climbed 31 per cent on Google\nPlay. The surge also boosted the popularity rankings of VPN apps. Proton\nVPN, for instance, jumped from 18th to fifth place in the Utilities\ncategory on the App Store between 16 and 18 June, and from eighth to\nsecond in the Tools category on Google Play.<\/p>\n
The spike in VPN usage followed the government\u2019s decision to restrict\naccess to Telegram until 22 June. The move was prompted by concerns that\nscammers were exploiting the platform to disseminate fake question\npapers for the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET), one of\nIndia\u2019s largest university entrance exams. The government argued the\nrestriction was necessary to prevent the spread of fraudulent exam\nmaterials and various scams targeting candidates. Telegram challenged\nthe policy in the Delhi High Court, arguing that the government should\ntarget specific problematic content rather than blocking the entire\nplatform. The company also stated it had cooperated with local\nauthorities by removing channels deemed problematic. However, the High\nCourt upheld the temporary restriction, ruling that the government had\nfollowed proper procedures given the emergency nature of the\nsituation.<\/p>\n
Downloads of the messaging app Viber on the App Store rose by 216 per\ncent. The app iMe, which is connected to the Telegram ecosystem,\nrecorded one of the highest increases, with Google Play downloads\njumping from a daily average of around 827 to more than 50,900 on 16\nJune. Despite the access restrictions, Telegram\u2019s user base did not\nimmediately decline. Data from Sensor Tower showed that daily active\nusers of Telegram in India actually increased by 17 per cent on the day\nthe restriction was announced, marking the largest daily rise since the\nMeta services outage in 2021. Further data highlighted the extent of\nefforts to maintain access, with Cloudflare recording a surge in Domain\nName System (DNS) requests to Telegram domains from India in the two\ndays following the announcement.<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/vpn-and-chat-app-downloads-surge-in-india-after-temporary-telegram-restriction-1781859436", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }