NEW DELHI, June 19, 2026 — India’s temporary restriction on Telegram Messenger last week triggered the country’s biggest single-day spike in VPN downloads so far in 2025, as millions of users looked for ways to keep using the messaging app.

According to data from Appfigures, downloads of major VPN apps jumped 49% on Tuesday, climbing from a recent daily average of 139,000 to 208,000. The increase marked the highest daily total for VPN installs in India since at least the start of the year.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology ordered the restriction to curb the spread of fake exam papers and related scams ahead of the NEET re-test.

Officials said Telegram channels were being used to circulate leaked questions and solicit payments from students, prompting an urgent block on the entire platform rather than individual groups.

Telegram challenged the move in the Delhi High Court, arguing that authorities should target specific channels and users violating the law instead of imposing a blanket ban that affects millions of legitimate users.

The court upheld the government’s decision, noting the need to protect the integrity of a national exam taken by over 2 million candidates. The block is scheduled to lift on June 22.

The ban had an immediate impact on app stores. Proton VPN downloads rose 113% on Apple’s App Store and 64% on Google Play compared with the prior daily average. Turbo VPN saw gains of 85% on iOS and 35% on Android.

The surge reshuffled store rankings: Proton VPN jumped from 18th to 5th in Apple’s Utilities category and from 8th to 2nd in Google Play’s Tools section between June 16 and June 18.

Other providers reported similar patterns. Proton said new registrations from India were 120% above baseline on Wednesday. Windscribe recorded signups about 100% above normal and an 89% rise in first-time iOS downloads. Free VPN apps also climbed the charts, with several entering the top 10 on both stores for the first time this year.

While the government’s order targeted exam cheating, Telegram’s role in India extends far beyond student groups. The app is widely used by small businesses for customer orders, by news outlets for distribution, by NGOs for coordination, and by families for large group chats. The sudden restriction left many scrambling for alternatives or technical workarounds.

“I run a bookstore and we take 40% of our orders on Telegram,” said a shop owner in Pune. “When it went down, I had to install a VPN in 10 minutes just to tell customers we were still open.”

University students also reported moving class discussions to VPN-accessed Telegram groups because materials and schedules had already been shared there.

In its ruling, the Delhi High Court said the restriction was “proportionate to the urgency” of protecting the NEET re-test, even if it impacted unrelated users. The bench noted that Telegram had been given notice to take down offending channels but said the scale and speed of exam-related fraud justified a wider block.

The Ministry said it would review platform-level bans case by case and preferred targeted takedowns, but acted under Section 69A of the IT Act due to time constraints.

Digital rights groups criticized the approach. The Internet Freedom Foundation argued that app-wide bans set a “dangerous precedent” and push users toward VPNs, which can complicate law enforcement efforts.

“Blocking a whole platform because of some users is like shutting down the postal service because of forged letters,” an IFF spokesperson said.

India has restricted apps before, including TikTok in 2020 and multiple lending and betting apps in 2023, each time producing short-term VPN spikes. The Telegram case is notable because the block was explicitly time-bound and tied to a single event. Appfigures data shows that VPN downloads typically fall back within a week of a ban being lifted, though some new users remain.

The episode also highlights Telegram’s deep integration in India. The country is one of the app’s largest markets, with over 100 million users. Beyond messaging, channels function as broadcast tools for everything from stock tips to job alerts, making them hard to replace overnight.