New Delhi, March 11 The central government on Wednesday directed the instant messaging platform Telegram to disable over 3,100 channels within three hours for violating various provisions of the Copyright Act, 1957.
The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting issued the order after finding that these channels were hosting and distributing content owned by or licensed to certain content owners, OTT platforms, and producers without legal authorisation.
In a notification, Joint Secretary C Senthil Rajan said that the unlawful content had been "hosted, shared, and distributed" on the intermediary platform in violation of the Copyright Act, 1957.
"The intermediary Telegram is hereby notified to remove and disable access to the concerned Telegram channels, including all of their content, within three hours of the issuance of this communication, without vitiating any evidence," the notification said.
The order identified a total of 3,142 Telegram channels for removal.