X blasts India ‘censorship' order on thousands of accounts
Many of the blocked accounts were restored hours later, with New Delhi specifically denying its role in the takedown.
India, the world's biggest democracy, regularly ranks among the top five countries for the number of requests made by a government to remove social media content.
'On July 3, 2025, the Indian government ordered X to block 2,355 accounts in India, including international news outlets like @Reuters and @ReutersWorld,' X's Global Government Affairs team said in a statement, shared on its platform.
It said that India's Ministry of Electronics 'demanded immediate action — within one hour — without providing justification, and required the accounts to remain blocked' until further notice.
The accounts were taken offline late on Saturday, but had resumed operations by Sunday.
'Non-compliance risked criminal liability,' said X, the platform owned by Tesla boss Elon Musk and formerly known as Twitter.
'After public outcry, the government requested X to unblock @Reuters and @ReutersWorld,' it added.
'We are deeply concerned about ongoing press censorship in India due to these blocking orders.'
Rights groups say freedom of expression and free press is under threat in India since Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi took office in 2014.
New Delhi has regularly imposed blanket internet shutdowns during periods of unrest.
India in April launched a sweeping crackdown on social media, banning more than a dozen Pakistani YouTube channels for allegedly spreading 'provocative' content following an attack in Kashmir.
Many of those of have been restored.
New Delhi has also imposed intermittent internet outages in the northeastern state of Manipur since 2023 in the wake of ethnic violence.
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Bilawal urges Indian youth to reject hate, war rhetoric from govt
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The writer is a retired major general and has an interest in International Relations and Political Sociology. He can be reached at tayyarinam@ and tweets @20_Inam Listen to article This article concludes this series covering the four-day Indo-Pak war in May 2025. The war crossed previous thresholds in geographic reach, systems employed and produced unprecedented levels of mis/dis-information, that to this day cloud a clearer understanding specially from the Indian side. It ended after significant diplomatic engagement, primarily by the US. The war saw many military firsts like: India using cruise missiles (BrahMos, SCALP-EG); Pakistan employing conventionally armed short-range ballistic missiles (Fatah Series); armed drone warfare between any nuclear armed neighbours; and the conflict being the largest aerial, EW, AI, psy-warfare duel. Whereas India delivered precise standoff attacks across Pakistan, our AD interfered and intercepted some attempted strikes. 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Next crisis, under the prevalent Indian military thinking, might see greater and escalatory usage of cruise and ballistic missiles, armed drones, air force, long-range fires, and sabotage, imposing preparedness and readiness on Pakistan. Operationally, Pakistan fused air, missile, cyber, space and EW effects under a unified command. Next generation Chinese sensors, data links, and electronic-attack pods equipped PAF pilots, already more proficient in night and terrain-masking profiles, with the network advantage to undermine Rafaeles. Integrated EW suites blinded Indian command circuits, long enough for standoff munitions to hit with impunity. Because of inadequate pilot training and tactical cohesiveness, the IAF could not take advantage of Rafaele's Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar and Meteor BVR missiles, hence PAF controlled the airspace by integrating J-10Cs with Link-17 for real-time coordinated dogfighting tactics. 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This includes, on both sides, damage to military and civilian infrastructure i.e. airbases, aircraft losses, border posts, UAVs, radar systems, fuel depots; civilian houses, schools, hospitals, roads, border towns, communication towers; trade disruption losses; stock market impact; tourism & service sector losses; flight grounding; energy infrastructure damage; defense production halt; and foreign investment fallout etc. After losing Rafaeles, the world's markets witnessed decline in its manufacturer, the French Dassault's shares. Without meaningful international interlocutions, the crisis-prone India-Pakistan relationship will ensure peace only till another crisis erupts. Indian intransigence against composite dialogue, suggested repeatedly by Islamabad, will only constrain India's great power ambition. South Block's disdainful reluctance to hyphenate India-Pakistan relations is no more taken by Washington, which under Trump will gravitate towards a more transactional relationship with New Delhi, to be based upon 'interests' (containing China) and not' ideology' (India, the largest democracy). Pakistan's gains also include internationalising the Kashmir issue. The US crisis management was decisive, especially in the closing hours, when India was unable to stabilise the situation. The US-brokered ceasefire gave Islamabad a diplomatic upper hand, as Trump cajoled India. Pakistan must be careful about increased Indo-Israel bonhomie. Keeping the US in good humour, hence, is vital for Islamabad, given the US-Israel networking. In strategic and diplomatic arena, Pakistan's measured, calm and calibrated responses as against Indian jingoism changed the strategic equilibrium and might force India to re-evaluate future escalations. 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Pakistan's political leadership now seems more willing to strengthen the military. Media handling and information dissemination by the ISPR was mature and organised, compared to India, where military officials and media mostly promoted fictional, false and hyper-nationalist jingoistic themes. Indian briefings created controversy about Indian spokesperson, Col Sofiya Qureshi's religion. Indian media lost credibility over news like India taking control of Karachi Port, etc. In sum, Pakistan emerged taller from the crisis.
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