Telegram Faces Restrictions in Kenya Over Exam Cheating
The platform will be down for certain hours during weekdays till the end of the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Examination (KCSE)
In September, Telegram underwent a major change. It added new privacy laws to crack down on "bad actors" on its platform after the company's CEO, Pavel Durov, was arrested for allegations that his platform allows criminal activity to thrive.
Many argued that this would impede freedom of speech and expression, but Telegram clarified that unless you were a criminal, you have nothing to worry about.
Louis Eriakha
Despite these new measures, Telegram is once again in hot water for allegedly facilitating criminal activities. But this time, in Kenya, with claims of the platform enabling exam malpractice.
According to Techweez, the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) temporarily shut down Telegram in the country after reports that the platform was being used to share exam answers. Exam supervisors were smuggling mobile phones and other materials into exam halls to assist students in cheating for the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Examination (KCSE).
Interestingly, Telegram wasn't shut down completely. Instead, major telecom providers like Safaricom, Airtel, Telkom, and JTL were instructed to block access to Telegram during specific hours on weekdays—7:00 AM to 10:00 AM and 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM, when the exams were taking place.
So Telegram is expected to return to normal after November 22, once the exams wrap up.
That said, this isn't the first time Telegram has faced issues in Kenya over concerns surrounding exam malpractices. In November 2023, the government imposed a similar restriction during the KCSE exams, which resulted in an estimated KSh 4.2 billion ($32 million) in business losses.
NetBlocks even calculated a daily loss of KSh 537 million ($4 million) during that time. So, it seems like Telegram and the Kenyan government have developed a bit of an annual tradition during exam season.
According to Kenyans, Telegram is the fifth most used platform in Kenya, after WhatsApp, Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram, so it's understandable that the government tried to limit its downtime as much as possible. Some reports even show the government had tried to work with Telegram only to tackle chat rooms that facilitated exam malpractice but the company was unresponsive, hence the restrictions.
Despite the backlash Telegram has been receiving, the platform has been reporting steady growth this year. Backlinko reports that the platform has had an additional 150 million monthly active users in 2024, from 800 million as of 2023 to 950 million users currently.
Kelechi Edeh
