Messaging app Telegram has formally applied to register, nearly a month after it was banned in Nepal. In July, the Nepal Telecommunications Authority had instructed all internet service providers to restrict access to the platform, citing its increasing use for criminal purposes. Telegram is a cloud-based messaging app known for its strong encryption, privacy features and support for large group chats and broadcast channels. These features, combined with the company operators’ belief that governments should not interfere with people’s online activity, have rendered the app a safe space for sharing information censored by governments—as well as a playground for criminal activities globally. While the app has had some positive uses while trying to thwart authoritarian regimes, elsewhere, the platform is also used to share pornographic and pirated content and facilitate recruitment drives for extremist groups.

The trend also extends to Nepal. Since FY 2022-23, the Cyber Bureau has recorded a multifold increase in the use of Telegram in cybercrimes. Nepali cybercriminals are increasingly using the app for cyber fraud, which led to the ban in July. Until September 2024, police organisations worldwide were powerless when it came to examining the content of messages sent via Telegram, as the app prioritises the privacy of content shared by its users. Its co-founder, Pavel Durov, was arrested by the French National Judicial Police on August 24, 2024, as part of a preliminary investigation into the app’s facilitation of crimes. Four days later, he was charged on twelve counts, including violations related to drug trafficking, child exploitation, money laundering and nine other crimes.

With mounting public and governmental scrutiny, the developers started disclosing the users’ IP addresses and phone numbers to law enforcement agencies in response to legal requests. However, Nepal Police is not a beneficiary of the change in Telegram’s policy. The improved policy, which enables police organisations to examine messages, has only been applied to law enforcement in the European Union and its trading partners, such as the US and Canada, that are covered by the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Again, the app has been a saving grace for freedom of expression in authoritarian regimes. In Nepal, too, with excessive censorship of public opinion, highlighted by the recent arrest warrant against journalist Dil Bhusan Pathak, the messaging app could serve as a platform where critical opinions are safeguarded. In addition, the ban on the app restricts people’s freedom of choice.

Nepal’s Electronic Transaction Act does provide a legal framework for dealing with cybercrimes, but it must be updated to keep pace with evolving malicious use of encrypted platforms such as Telegram. The misuse of Article 47 of the Act during the issuance of an arrest warrant against journalist Pathak highlights how the legal framework is still mired in ambiguity. At the policy level, an updated law to safeguard cyberspace is an immediate need.

The Communication Ministry has started consulting stakeholders, including law enforcement, over whether it should register the messaging app. The detrimental effects of its malicious use must not be overlooked. While the terms of registration are negotiated with the representatives of Telegram, our law enforcement must also have the right to examine the content shared on the messaging platform when legal cases are lodged over its misuse. In the absence of such a guarantee, the rampant increase in cybercrime facilitated by the messaging app will continue.