Government Preparing To Shut Down Telegram. Preparations are underway to shut down the social media platform Telegram, citing fraud and money laundering activities.
The National Coordination Committee on Prevention of Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism, under the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers, has initiated the process to shut down Telegram.
According to sources, the committee wrote a letter to the Ministry of Information and Communications on Thursday asking it to bring Telegram under the ambit of action. Ministry spokesperson Gajendra Kumar Thakur also told Online News that the letter sent by the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers was received on Thursday.
“The letter has arrived, but rather than closing it now, it has been asked to investigate whether there has been any money laundering activity through it,” he said. “We will ask the Money Laundering Department, Nepal Police and other agencies about that, and only then will we decide what to do.”
The steering committee, which will be coordinated by the Secretary of the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers, will include the secretaries of the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Law, Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Office of the Attorney General, and the Secretary of the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority.
According to sources, in a recent meeting of the committee, Nepal Police Chief IGP Deepak Thapa briefed the committee on the increase in criminal activities, including fraud, via Telegram, and that these were also linked to money laundering.
Telegram founder and CEO Pavel Durov himself was arrested in France in August 2002. At that time, he was accused of involvement in illegal transactions, drug trafficking, fraud, and the distribution of images related to child sexual abuse through Telegram.
When Telegram‘s founder was arrested, some even called it the ‘dark web’ of social media. The ‘dark web’ is a platform in the world of the internet that can only be accessed using certain software.
In Nepal, Telegram was also linked to the theft of Rs 35 million from Citizens Bank’s account by hacking F1Soft’s system in December 2002. At that time, it was revealed that the hacker had used Telegram to lure unemployed youths and steal their money.
“This issue was raised in high-level meetings, but it remained that way,” the official says. “It’s a good thing that this issue is being taken seriously now.”