Amid the temporary Telegram ban in India, Reliance Jio has denied the accusations made by the company founder and CEO Pavel Durov, who claimed that a Reliance-linked network disrupted access to Telegram for users outside India through a technique known as Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) hijacking.
The controversy emerged on Wednesday after Durov accused the Indian telecom-linked entity of interfering with Telegram traffic in countries such as the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Jio responded by rejecting the claims and said it was not involved in any routing issue.
Jio Rejects Allegations
Reliance Jio took to its official X account and said that social media discussions had created confusion regarding a reported BGP route misconfiguration and the company’s role in it.
The company said, “Recent posts on X have led to speculation regarding Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited (AS55836) and a BGP route misconfiguration. We categorically clarify that Jio has not been involved in any such incident.”
It added, “Jio continues to operate its network in accordance with global Internet routing best practices and the highest standards of reliability, security, and transparency.”
Durov had claimed that Telegram users in various regions, including the UAE, were facing connectivity issues because of what he described as BGP hijacking. He alleged that the proble seemed intentional and mentioned reports about the issue had allegedly been ignored.
The Telegram founder took to X and described the situation as a form of internet routing abuse and urged network operators worldwide to reject what he called unauthorised routing announcements linked to the network in question.
Durov stated, “The sabotage seems intentional, as Reliance has ignored multiple reports. This may be part of a competitive war, as Reliance is partially owned by Meta.”
Calling the alleged activity alarming, Durov said, “Such abuse of global Internet routing is alarming.”
What Is Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) Hijacking?
The Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) hijacking is a cyberattack that affects the internet traffic of a platform and it is redirected to the wrong destination by manipulating the internet’s global routing map. It usually works, when a network operator or an attacker falsely claims ownership of a group of IP addresses that they actually do not control.
It is believed that a successful BGP hijack may affect service disruption, slower connections, traffic interception and users being unable to reach specific websites and applications. In many cases, these incidents can happen due to technical errors or route leaks, while in others they may be carried out on purpose.
Why Telegram Was Banned In India
Telegram has been blocked in India for a week from June 16, days before the NEET re-test. MeitY acted on the National Testing Agency’s (NTA) advice under Section 69A, blaming cheating rackets that were using the app to defraud exam candidates.