Telegram edit feature led to its ban in India, NTA says students losing money to it
Telegram is banned in India ahead of the NEET re-test on June 21. A major reason for this ban, according to the National Testing Agency (NTA) is the editing feature on the app. Here is how the edit feature works, and why it is now at the centre of controversy.
India banned Telegram on Tuesday till June 22. This decision came right before the NEET re-test that is scheduled for June 21. However, the ban has two parts. The Telegram app is banned till June 22, but the edit feature of app will remain disabled till June 30. Keep in mind that it is not clear how India will specifically enforce the ban on a feature inside an app.
Since the ban was put in place on Tuesday, there have been a number of theories around why Telegram has been banned in India. And different people, including Telegram creator Pavel Durov, have said different things. The National Testing Agency (NTA) claims the ban is primarily due to fake NEET paper scam on the app.
The scam, as explained by NTA in a video posted on X, was enabled by the way the edit feature works in Telegram. The app allows people to edit messages for up to 48 hours. And this is not just a simple edit, Telegram allows you to change the file or files attached with the message. More significantly, and the reason why Telegram has attracted a ban, is that the “edited” label is not displayed as prominently and clearly as it should be in all chats.
NTA alleges the way “edited” label is displayed, or not displayed at all, when the same message is forwarded to a different group, creates potential for scams. Also, by default, the timestamp in the messages remains that of the original time when it was posted.
The agency says that on the last occasion, scammers sold fake NEET papers a day or two days before the exam. And once the exam happened, the PDF file that they sold was replaced by the actual paper through the edit feature of Telegram. Anybody who bought the fake test essentially lost money and had no way to even prove that they were sold the fake paper. That is, the edited feature allowed the scammer to fool students and their families.
Abhishek Singh, the director general of NTA, claimed on X that scams with fake papers happened after the NEET exams in May. He said, “On the 3rd of May, when the examination was conducted, we got a similar complaint wherein a video was circulated by several handles after the examination was conducted. It showed a question paper which was shared on that Telegram channel on the 1st of May, that is two days before the examination.”
The problem with the edit functionality has been addressed by Telegram CEO Pavel Durov, even though he termed the ban not logical. He wrote on X, “We’re making the ‘edited’ label more visible to prevent backdating scams.” Pavel added that Telegram had “removed hundreds of channels sharing leaked exam materials and related scams in India” in recent months.
Teen hackers pushback on NTA claim
While it seems NTA has a point when it comes to the edit functionality on Telegram, many are questioning if a ban is necessary. That is because Telegram does show the time when the message was edited, along with the time when it was originally posted. Although, to see the time when a message was edited, users do have to first tap on the message.
Abhishek Singh in the NTA post claimed that even after editing an older message, users — only — see the original timestamp. He added, “The time stamp will still show the earlier time stamp and people would be fooled in looking at that video and thinking that this question paper was shared earlier.”
But according to 18-year-old cybersecurity researcher Sarthak Sidhant, the timestamp of the edit is visible if users take care to just tap on the message. He replied to a comment from Manindra Agrawal, the Director of IIT Kanpur, who claimed that Telegram does not show a timestamp for edits unlike WhatsApp.
In his reply, Sarthak shared a Telegram screenshot that showed the edited time of a message as well as the time when it was originally sent. Apart from the timestamp issue, Sarthak claimed that even on the topic of the lack of an edit label, there was a solution.
To demonstrate how this is possible, Sarthak created two groups — let’s call them A and B — on Telegram and forwarded a message from Group A to Group B. Sarthak shared screenshots, showing that when a message was edited in Group A, Grpup B showed the updated message but without the edited label. However, the teen cybersecurity researcher pointed out that in the backend, Telegram knows that the message has been edited, and the time when the edit was made. It’s just not visible to users.
According to Sarthak, instead of banning the app, Indian authorities could’ve asked Telegram to simply show the edited label on the message irrespective of whether it is in the original chat or in a separate group -- Group A and Group B in this case. He wrote, “Instead of banning Telegram, the NTA could have asked them to (show the edited label), but the easiest solution is asking them to shut down operations for a week of NEET examinations and its aftermath.”
Nisarga Adhikary, another viral teen cybersecurity researcher, shared similar views on X. He replied to NTA’s post, stating that this data about when a message was edited was stored. Nisarga wrote, “With respect sirs, edit_date is explicitly stored in local db and memory in history_item_edition.cpp even when edit_hide is set. The badge disappears but the data is saved regardless.”
India banned Telegram on Tuesday till June 22. This decision came right before the NEET re-test that is scheduled for June 21. However, the ban has two parts. The Telegram app is banned till June 22, but the edit feature of app will remain disabled till June 30. Keep in mind that it is not clear how India will specifically enforce the ban on a feature inside an app.
Since the ban was put in place on Tuesday, there have been a number of theories around why Telegram has been banned in India. And different people, including Telegram creator Pavel Durov, have said different things. The National Testing Agency (NTA) claims the ban is primarily due to fake NEET paper scam on the app.
The scam, as explained by NTA in a video posted on X, was enabled by the way the edit feature works in Telegram. The app allows people to edit messages for up to 48 hours. And this is not just a simple edit, Telegram allows you to change the file or files attached with the message. More significantly, and the reason why Telegram has attracted a ban, is that the “edited” label is not displayed as prominently and clearly as it should be in all chats.
NTA alleges the way “edited” label is displayed, or not displayed at all, when the same message is forwarded to a different group, creates potential for scams. Also, by default, the timestamp in the messages remains that of the original time when it was posted.
The agency says that on the last occasion, scammers sold fake NEET papers a day or two days before the exam. And once the exam happened, the PDF file that they sold was replaced by the actual paper through the edit feature of Telegram. Anybody who bought the fake test essentially lost money and had no way to even prove that they were sold the fake paper. That is, the edited feature allowed the scammer to fool students and their families.
Abhishek Singh, the director general of NTA, claimed on X that scams with fake papers happened after the NEET exams in May. He said, “On the 3rd of May, when the examination was conducted, we got a similar complaint wherein a video was circulated by several handles after the examination was conducted. It showed a question paper which was shared on that Telegram channel on the 1st of May, that is two days before the examination.”
The problem with the edit functionality has been addressed by Telegram CEO Pavel Durov, even though he termed the ban not logical. He wrote on X, “We’re making the ‘edited’ label more visible to prevent backdating scams.” Pavel added that Telegram had “removed hundreds of channels sharing leaked exam materials and related scams in India” in recent months.
Teen hackers pushback on NTA claim
While it seems NTA has a point when it comes to the edit functionality on Telegram, many are questioning if a ban is necessary. That is because Telegram does show the time when the message was edited, along with the time when it was originally posted. Although, to see the time when a message was edited, users do have to first tap on the message.
Abhishek Singh in the NTA post claimed that even after editing an older message, users — only — see the original timestamp. He added, “The time stamp will still show the earlier time stamp and people would be fooled in looking at that video and thinking that this question paper was shared earlier.”
But according to 18-year-old cybersecurity researcher Sarthak Sidhant, the timestamp of the edit is visible if users take care to just tap on the message. He replied to a comment from Manindra Agrawal, the Director of IIT Kanpur, who claimed that Telegram does not show a timestamp for edits unlike WhatsApp.
In his reply, Sarthak shared a Telegram screenshot that showed the edited time of a message as well as the time when it was originally sent. Apart from the timestamp issue, Sarthak claimed that even on the topic of the lack of an edit label, there was a solution.
To demonstrate how this is possible, Sarthak created two groups — let’s call them A and B — on Telegram and forwarded a message from Group A to Group B. Sarthak shared screenshots, showing that when a message was edited in Group A, Grpup B showed the updated message but without the edited label. However, the teen cybersecurity researcher pointed out that in the backend, Telegram knows that the message has been edited, and the time when the edit was made. It’s just not visible to users.
According to Sarthak, instead of banning the app, Indian authorities could’ve asked Telegram to simply show the edited label on the message irrespective of whether it is in the original chat or in a separate group -- Group A and Group B in this case. He wrote, “Instead of banning Telegram, the NTA could have asked them to (show the edited label), but the easiest solution is asking them to shut down operations for a week of NEET examinations and its aftermath.”
Nisarga Adhikary, another viral teen cybersecurity researcher, shared similar views on X. He replied to NTA’s post, stating that this data about when a message was edited was stored. Nisarga wrote, “With respect sirs, edit_date is explicitly stored in local db and memory in history_item_edition.cpp even when edit_hide is set. The badge disappears but the data is saved regardless.”
