X has withheld the account of Proton VPN General Manager David Peterson in India in response to a legal demand, days after he posted that the privacy-focused virtual private network (VPN) service saw sign-ups spike following India’s block on Telegram.
Peterson’s post claimed that Proton VPN registrations rose sharply after the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) blocked Telegram over leaked exam questions. His account now displays the standard notice stating that the content has been withheld in response to a legal demand.
The block targets the messenger’s promotion of a workaround. A VPN allows users to mask their geolocation and access blocked platforms, so the surge directly reflects demand for bypassing the Telegram ban. By withholding Peterson’s account, authorities have restricted the person publicising that workaround, not just the platform under the order. Journalist Aditi Agrawal noted that the government “often hunts for an axe to step on it,” describing the withholding as self-defeating.
The sign-up data points to widespread circumvention. Daily registrations from India jumped 120% on Wednesday after hourly registrations surged 150% on Tuesday evening, according to Proton VPN’s official X post, which remains accessible in India. Google Trends also showed searches for “Telegram VPN” and “VPN for Telegram” rising during the same period.
Telegram remains restricted until June 22, a day after the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) re-test. MeitY issued the block under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, 2000, and separately directed Telegram to disable its message-editing feature until June 30. The National Testing Agency (NTA) said it acted against the organised use of the platform by cheating rackets that allegedly defrauded candidates.
The Delhi High Court has since upheld the block, dismissing Telegram’s challenge and holding that it met the proportionality test. The ruling is significant because it extends Section 69A powers to a platform-wide block rather than the content-specific takedowns that the provision has typically covered.
Telegram founder Pavel Durov earlier said the ban punishes more than 150 million ordinary users rather than the insiders who leaked exam materials and argued that the leaks simply shifted to other apps. Durov has also alleged that Reliance sabotaged Telegram access for users outside India through BGP hijacking.
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