Telegram faced major connectivity disruptions after researchers reported that Reliance Communications’ AS18101 allegedly announced Telegram’s 91.108.56.0/22 IP prefix, a route normally originated by Telegram’s AS62041. The announcement reportedly spread through FLAG Telecom and reached international peers, causing Telegram traffic in India and parts of the UAE, Europe, and Asia to be misrouted or dropped.

The incident came around the same time as India’s temporary Telegram restriction linked to NEET exam security, but the network-layer impact went far beyond a domestic block. Researchers say the route should have been flagged as RPKI-invalid and filtered, raising fresh concerns about weak BGP security enforcement, poor route filtering, and how a single unauthorized routing announcement can disrupt a major platform across borders.