X has withheld the account of David Peterson, General Manager of Proton VPN, in India following a legal demand. This action came days after Peterson highlighted a sharp rise in Proton VPN sign-ups in India, triggered by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) blocking Telegram over leaked exam questions. Peterson’s account now shows a notice indicating content withholding in response to the legal order, according to medianama.com.
Peterson’s post detailed that daily registrations from India for Proton VPN jumped 120% on Wednesday, with hourly registrations surging 150% the previous evening. This spike followed MeitY’s block on Telegram, which targeted the messenger’s promotion of a workaround to the ban. Proton VPN’s official X post confirming the registration surge remains accessible in India. Google Trends data also showed increased searches for terms like “Telegram VPN” and “VPN for Telegram” during the same period, per medianama.com.
The block on Telegram and the resulting VPN sign-up surge reflect widespread efforts to circumvent the ban in India. By withholding Peterson’s account, authorities restricted the individual publicizing the workaround, not just the platform itself. Journalist Aditi Agrawal described the move as self-defeating, noting the government’s tendency to suppress dissenting voices. The case highlights tensions between government censorship and privacy-focused services in India’s digital policy landscape, as reported by medianama.com.
MeitY blocked Telegram for 150 million users in India, leading to the surge in VPN demand and the subsequent withholding of Peterson’s account on X, according to medianama.com.