New Delhi, July 4 (IANS) The Ministry of Information & Broadcasting (I&B) has directed Telegram to take immediate action against pirated films and OTT content and submit a report within 15 days, sources said on Saturday. The move aims to protect India's creator economy, film industry, broadcasters, OTT platforms, producers, and distributors from the adverse impact of digital piracy. Earlier, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) had blocked Telegram in India till June 22 as a precautionary measure ahead of the NEET-UG 2026 re-exam.

"Both measures have been taken in the interest of public order, in response to the organised use of the platform by cheating rackets to defraud candidates appearing for the NEET (UG) 2026 re-examination scheduled on 21 June 2026," the National Testing Agency (NTA) said last month. Significantly, the Delhi High Court had upheld the Centre's decision to temporarily suspend Telegram's services across India ahead of the NEET (UG) 2026 re-examination, ruling that the government had strictly followed the procedure prescribed under law while invoking emergency blocking powers and that the restrictions satisfied the test of proportionality.

Dismissing a petition filed by Telegram FZ LLC challenging the MeitY blocking order, a single-judge Bench of Justice Tejas Karia held that the temporary suspension of the messaging platform till June 22 and disabling of its message-editing feature till June 30 were justified in the circumstances surrounding the nationwide medical entrance examination. Google had reinstated the application on the 'Play Store' in India after June 22. The I&B Ministry's latest directive to Telegram comes days after the Centre issued a notice to Meta over the proposed rollout of its username feature on WhatsApp, the Meta-owned company.

The government asked Meta not to roll out the "usernames" feature in India until consultations on the matter are completed, the sources added. In response to the Centre's notice, messaging platform WhatsApp has clarified that its upcoming username feature will be optional and reiterated that several safeguards have been built in to prevent impersonation, scams and unwanted contact as it prepares for a wider rollout later this year.

--IANS