X, India govt contradict over Reuters blocking orders
X alleges that the Indian government issued blocking orders for over 2,300 accounts on July 3; MeitY denied issuing fresh orders
Social media platform X, owned by Elon Musk, on Tuesday (July 8) said that they were “deeply concerned” over “ongoing press censorship” in India as blocking orders were issued against two handles of the international news agency Reuters.
Blocking order by Indian govt
The Global Government Affairs account of X stated in a lengthy post that on July 3, the Indian government ordered X (formerly Twitter) to block 2,355 accounts in the country, including news outlets like @Reuters and @ReutersWorld, under Section 69A of the IT Act.
It further stated that the government warned it of “criminal liability” if it did not comply with the orders adding that the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting sought that the order must be complied with within an hour.
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Order to block 2,355 accounts
“On July 3, 2025, the Indian government ordered X to block 2,355 accounts in India, including international news outlets like @Reuters and @ReutersWorld , under Section 69A of the IT Act. Non-compliance risked criminal liability,” stated X’s Global Government Affairs account.
It claimed that the Indian government requested X to unblock @Reuters and @ReutersWorld only after a public outcry. It urged users in India to approach courts for legal remedies against such orders.
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Restored after public outcry
“After public outcry, the government requested X to unblock @Reuters and @ReutersWorld . We are deeply concerned about ongoing press censorship in India due to these blocking orders. X is exploring all legal options available. Unlike users located in India, X is restricted by Indian law in its ability to bring legal challenges against these executive orders. We urge affected users to pursue legal remedies through the courts,” stated the post.
According to media reports quoting an official, the government did not have any reason to withhold the two X handles of Reuters, adding that they were blocked due to some “technical issues” and the government was working with X to resolve the problem.
The reports further stated that apart from Reuters, X accounts of other international news agencies like Turkey’s TRT World and China’s Global Times News were also not accessible in India since Saturday evening. However, all of them were accessible within 24 hours, reported the Hindustan Times.
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Govt denies allegation
However, later in the day the Official Spokesperson, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology denied having issued any such blocking orders on July 3.
"The Government has not issued any fresh blocking order on 3rd July, 2025 and has no intention to block any prominent international News Channels including Reuters and Reuters World. The moment Reuters and Reuters World were blocked on X platform in India, immediately the government wrote to ‘X’ to unblock them," the spokesperson told news agency ANI.
"The Government continuously engaged and vigorously pursued with ‘X’ from the late night of 5th July 2025. ‘X’ has unnecessarily exploited technicalities involved around the process and didn’t unblock the URLs. However, after lot of follow-up on hourly basis, X has finally unblocked Reuters and other URLs after 9 pm on 6th July 2025. They took more than 21 hours to unblock Reuters," added the spokesperson.