Explained: Reliance Communications and Telegram’s “global” blocking

Late June 16, Telegram CEO Pavel Durov alleged on X, formerly Twitter, that “Indian telecom Reliance is sabotaging access to Telegram for millions of users OUTSIDE India (including the UAE) via a rogue method called BGP hijacking,” and that this “sabotage seems intentional, as Reliance has ignored multiple reports”. What had happened was in fact a result of an accidental misconfiguration by Reliance Communications, the once-large telecom operator under the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group. That misconfiguration briefly caused Telegram outages in different countries, following an India-only ban ordered by the government to stop the spread of exam-related misinformation. While Telegram…