KATHMANDU, July 18: After months of recommendations and request from the Cyber Bureau of Nepal Police to ban the malicious Telegram messaging app, the Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA), on Friday, directed all telecom service providers to immediately block access to the Telegram app.
The NTA issued the directive through a notice published on its website.
This move follows concerns raised by security agencies that Telegram has increasingly been used for money laundering activities in recent times. According to the spokesperson for the Cyber Bureau, Superintendent of Police (SP) Dipak Raj Awasthi, the use of the app is rampant in financial frauds.
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“Most of the citizens have no knowledge of the app which is why they easily fall prey to frauds including investment scam through the app,” SP Awasthi told Republica, “It has been over six months that the bureau requested the government to ban the app. The ban is a welcome move albeit the delay in the decision.”
During discussions involving officials from the Prime Minister’s Office, Ministry of Home Affairs and other relevant bodies, the officials from the bureau had informed the government officials about several incidents of money laundering traced to the use of Telegram.
Acting on the police’s findings, the Prime Minister’s Office on Thursday sent a formal letter to the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, requesting the app be taken down.
In addition to the vulnerability of the general public to the frauds orchestrated through the app, the incompliance of the app to provide information about the content shared through it propelled the bureau to recommend the ban.
“Unlike Meta, which provides the police with information about the content shared through its apps, Telegram did not cooperate with the police,” SP Awasthi said, “This meant that we could not choose any other way except the ban.”
SP Awasthi informed Republica that the bureau is on the look-out for other applications that might be used by cyber criminals to defraud the general public. “We know of other apps used by cyber criminals,” he said, “If the app operators do not comply with the security agencies during investigations, we might have to take similar steps in the future.”
Telegram is not considered a secure platform for data collection. The app has been criticized for not cooperating with law enforcement agencies, often failing to provide user data when requested. China has already imposed a ban on the platform.
