India Demanded Reuters Block—X Says Over 2,000 Accounts Affected

X, a social media platform owned by Elon Musk, has disputed the government on its censoring of Reuters accounts claiming that it has been issued with a number of orders to block more than 2,000 accounts in India including those of the news agency on July 3. But the government in an official statement reinforced its earlier position that no such order has been sent by it on the said date.

X said in a post via its Global Government Affairs handle on Tuesday that on July 3, the Indian government had requested X to block 2,355 accounts in India, including international news agencies such as Reuters under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act.

Also Read: Sri Lanka vs Bangladesh 3rd ODI Decider | Series Levelled 1-1 | Full Match Preview

“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.”

Responding to the social network’s allegations, an official spokesperson of the IT Ministry said: “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 ReutersWorld. The moment Reuters and ReutersWorld were blocked on X platform in India, immediately the government wrote to X to unblock them. 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 a 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“.

What X said was contradictory to a statement announced by the government last Sunday, where it said: “There is no requirement from the Government of India to withhold Reuters handle. We are continuously working with X to resolve the problem.” It added: “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.”

Last Saturday, X blocked the accounts of Reuters and Reuters World, and displayed a message on the accounts of the latter saying they were withheld in India as a result of a legal request.

The ministry officials had previously stated that the government had issued blocking orders to X against certain posts posted by the news agency in the first week of May as part of its Operation Sindoor. However, the posts, then, had not been blocked by the platform.

Also Read: Berlin Summons Chinese Envoy Over Laser Attack on German Aircraft

In the course of Operation Sindoor, the Indian government had instructed social media sites such as X to block various pieces of content and account that it perceived to be deliberately misinforming the people and publishing information that were capable of subverting and making a mockery of the activities the Armed Forces were engaged in at that time. Although it had blocked various accounts that it considered being affiliated to Pakistan and China, it had as well ordered the blocking of the X accounts of other news outlets; BBC Urdu and Outlook India that were later reinstated.

Previously, on May 9, X had issued the statement that it had been blocked by executive requests made by the Indian government to block more than 8,000 accounts, including some of international news organisations and big-name users of X. The social media platform noted that being caught in default of the executive orders would expose it to possible penalties which might include small fines and jailing of its local workers.

Indian Express had said that the IT Ministry had received reinforcement of new personnel in a small team (which was established last year during the Lok Sabha polls) that is supposed to monitor and flag misleading content on social media, and specifically request that it put up during the conflict, should be taken down in the aftermath of a flurry of what it has called misinformation on social media platforms in the run up to Operation Sindoor. The surveillance was twenty-four hours and individuals had shifts.

Also Read: Cuddalore train-school van collision controversy involving DMK