India's temporary week-long block on Telegram over exam fraud concerns triggered a significant surge in VPN downloads and alternative messaging app adoption. VPN downloads rose 49% on the day the ban was announced, with Proton VPN and Turbo VPN seeing the largest gains. Signal downloads on Google Play jumped 322%, while Telegram-linked app iMe saw its daily downloads spike from ~827 to over 50,000. Despite the block, Telegram's daily active users in India actually rose 17% on announcement day, and Cloudflare Radar recorded a sharp increase in DNS requests for Telegram domains. Telegram challenged the order in Delhi High Court, arguing authorities should target specific content rather than the entire platform. The court reserved its verdict after hearing arguments from both sides.
