Minutes ago, AS18101 of India hijacked BGP routes belonging to
@telegram — with limited propagation due to route filtering.
The red sliver in the dotted box represents the propagation of AS18101's hijack — not nothing but RPKI ROV helped to limit the impact.
Indian telecom Reliance is sabotaging access to Telegram for millions of users OUTSIDE India (including the UAE) via a rogue method called BGP hijacking.
The sabotage seems intentional, as Reliance has ignored multiple reports.
This may be part of a competitive war, as Reliance is partially owned by Meta — the company behind WhatsApp.
Network operators are advised to reject unauthorized BGP announcements from Reliance (AS18101) to prevent route hijacks and ensure stable Internet access for their users.
Such abuse of global Internet routing is alarming. I wouldn’t be surprised if Reliance/WhatsApp were also behind the recent lobbying effort to ban Telegram in India.