‘Deeply concerned' over India press censorship, says X as accounts blocked
X restored the Reuters News account in India on Sunday, a day after it said it was asked by the Indian government to suspend it, citing a legal demand.
Many other blocked accounts were also restored, with New Delhi denying its role in the takedown.
In a post on Tuesday, X, promoted by billionaire Elon Musk, said the Indian government on July 3 ordered it to block 2,355 accounts in India under Section 69A of the Information Technology (IT) Act.
'Non-compliance risked criminal liability. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology demanded immediate action – within one hour – without providing justification, and required the accounts to remain blocked until further notice,' X said.
'After public outcry, the government requested X to unblock @Reuters and @ReutersWorld.'
A spokesperson for India's Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology said the government did not issue 'any fresh blocking order' on July 3 and had 'no intention to block any prominent international news channels', including Reuters and Reuters World, according to a post on X by ANI news agency, Reuters' partner in India.
'The moment Reuters and Reuters World were blocked on X platform in India, immediately the government wrote to X to unblock them,' the post said. 'The government continuously engaged and vigorously pursued with X from the late night of July 5, 2025.'
The spokesperson said X had 'unnecessarily exploited technicalities involved around the process and didn't unblock' the accounts.
India's IT law, passed in 2000, allows designated government officials to demand the takedown of content from social media platforms they deem to violate local laws, including on the grounds of national security or if a post threatens public order.
X, formerly known as Twitter, has long been at odds with India's government over content-removal requests. In March, the company sued the federal government over a new government website the company says expands takedown powers to 'countless' government officials. The case is continuing.
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.
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.
In April, the government launched a sweeping crackdown on social media, banning more than a dozen Pakistani YouTube channels for allegedly spreading 'provocative' content following an attack in Indian-administered Kashmir. Many of those 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.
The government has justified internet and social media bans as ways to curb disinformation in a country where hundreds of millions have access to some of the cheapest mobile internet rates in the world.
In its post on Tuesday, X said it was exploring all legal options available over censorship, but added that it was 'restricted by Indian law in its ability to bring legal challenges'.
'We urge affected users to pursue legal remedies through the courts,' it said.
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