As India slash off secure admission to to messaging app Telegram for every week over concerns about examination-associated fraud, users became to digital internal most networks (VPNs) and change messaging apps in surprisingly immense numbers.
App intelligence firm Appfigures suggested TechCrunch that Tuesday, the day India announced the Telegram restriction, marked the biggest day for VPN app downloads in the country since no longer no longer up to the initiate of 2025. Downloads of most main VPN apps rose 49% from a recent day after day reasonable of 139,000 to 208,000, the firm said.
Proton VPN and Turbo VPN recorded a few of the biggest increases. Downloads of Proton VPN on Apple’s App Retailer in India jumped 113%, while Turbo VPN downloads rose 85%. On Google Play, downloads of Proton VPN climbed 64% and Turbo VPN downloads elevated 35%. NordVPN’s App Retailer downloads elevated 41%, while ExpressVPN downloads on Google Play rose 31%.
The surge also pushed several VPN products and companies up India’s app-store charts. Proton VPN climbed from 18th to fifth in Apple’s Utilities rankings between June 16 and June 18, while its Google Play ranking rose from 8th to 2nd in the Tools category, per Appfigures.
The spike in VPN quiz adopted India’s decision to rapid restrict Telegram till June 22 over concerns that fraudsters had been the exhaust of the platform to be aware of candidates earlier than a re-take a look at for the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (Undergraduate), the country’s biggest entrance examination by applicant volume. The Indian authorities said the measure used to be important to forestall the unfold of flawed examination papers and associated scams. Telegram challenged the expose in the Delhi High Court docket, arguing that authorities can hang to light target articulate pronounce as an alternative of block your total platform. The court, nonetheless, upheld the restriction on Friday.
The response extended previous app-store secure records. Proton said day after day registrations from India rose 120% above baseline ranges on Wednesday, after hourly registrations had already spiked 150% on Tuesday evening following the Telegram restriction. The corporate described the expand as “extraordinarily mighty” given its existing scale in the country.
Canadian VPN service provider Windscribe reported a identical style. The corporate suggested TechCrunch that signups from India peaked roughly 100% above baseline ranges, while first-time downloads of its iOS app in the country rose about 89%.
“The spike in India follows the identical customary style we take into memoir in areas that ban articulate apps, introduce age bans or verification requirements, or in every other case restrict cyber web secure admission to,” Rebecca Rosenberg, increase operations manager at Windscribe, said.
Surfshark also reported elevated quiz from India, announcing it had considered a roughly 30% expand in connectivity from the country for the rationale that restriction used to be announced earlier this week.
The style used to be no longer itsy-bitsy to a handful of VPN companies. Sensor Tower suggested TechCrunch that downloads across the VPN app category in India rose 10% day-over-day on June 17, reversing a decline considered over the old two weeks.
“Spikes in quiz for VPNs tend to apply any roughly platform restriction, no topic the rationale in the assist of it,” said Laura Tyrylyte, a privateness indicate at NordVPN. “When secure admission to to a tool of us depend on is all of sudden removed, they look which that you just could mediate of choices speedily.”
Tyrylyte suggested TechCrunch that the response to Telegram’s restriction in India suggests users are becoming extra and extra aware of circumvention tools and are reacting extra rapid to on-line restrictions than in the previous.
Customers also regarded to be exploring which that you just could mediate of choices to Telegram. Appfigures said downloads of Signal in India rose 72% on Apple’s App Retailer and 322% on Google Play following the restriction, while Viber’s App Retailer downloads elevated 216%.
Telegram-linked messaging app iMe recorded indubitably one of many sharpest jumps. Its Google Play downloads rose from a recent day after day reasonable of about 827 to 50,900 on June 16, Appfigures said.
Yet the restriction did no longer at present translate into decrease Telegram utilization. Sensor Tower said Telegram’s day after day active users in India rose 17% on the day the measure used to be announced — the app’s biggest day-over-day expand in the country since a favorite outage of Meta’s products and companies in 2021.
Varied records components also indicate heightened efforts to secure admission to Telegram following the restriction.
Cloudflare Radar Lead Lai Yi Ohlsen suggested TechCrunch that DNS requests for Telegram domains in India elevated sharply over the two days after the measure used to be announced. The corporate cautioned that elevated DNS site visitors does no longer basically demonstrate profitable secure admission to to the platform, and could per chance think users normally attempting to realize Telegram after it used to be blocked.
Telegram pointed to its efforts to cooperate with authorities at some stage in hearings in the Delhi High Court docket this week. Its legal professionals said the corporate had removed channels identified by authorities and questioned the necessity for a platform-broad restriction affecting what Telegram says are over 150 million users in India.
Authorities legal professionals defended the measure as a non permanent, match-linked response tied to the NEET re-take a look at. Solicitor Fashioned Tushar Mehta suggested the court that a permanent ban could well also elevate proportionality concerns but argued the recent restriction had a “logical nexus” to the honest being pursued.
In its ruling on Friday, the court stumbled on that authorities had adopted the prescribed path of given the emergency nature of the expose.
In line with Surfshark’s Web Shutdown Tracker, Telegram is currently blocked in 13 worldwide locations and has confronted disruptions in no longer no longer up to 40 others over time.
Such restrictions hang normally been adopted by a surge in quiz for circumvention tools. Sensor Tower said VPN downloads in the U.S. rose extra than 40% week-over-week when TikTok used to be rapid removed from U.S. app retail outlets in 2025, while Windscribe said it has noticed identical patterns following restrictions in worldwide locations including Iran and Russia.
Show veil: This myth used to be updated to add particulars of the Delhi High Court docket’s ruling upholding the Telegram restriction.
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