Social media platform X, owned by billionaire Elon Musk, alleged "press censorship" in India as it claimed that the government ordered a ban on over 2,300 social media accounts, including the one operated by news agency Reuters.
The order to block Reuters was later reversed after public outcry, X posted on Tuesday via its 'Global Government Affairs' account.
"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," the microblogging platform said in a statement.
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. The Ministry of Electronics and Information…
X said that they had no choice but to obey the Indian government "order" on July 3 as they could have been penalised if they did not comply. The social media giant had asked those whose accounts had been blocked in India to look for remedy from courts.
"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," it claimed.
However, the government in a statement on Tuesday reiterated that the government had not issued any fresh order on July 3 to block the X accounts linked to Reuters.
"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," an official spokesperson of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology said.
The government spokesperson further added that X unnecessarily exploited technicalities involved around the process and didn't unblock the URLs.
The government also claimed that X took more than 21 hours to unblock Reuters.
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