- The Centre denied issuing any order to block Reuters accounts on July 3
- Reuters and ReutersWorld were blocked on X platform in India temporarily
- The government immediately requested X to unblock the Reuters accounts
A few hours after the press-censorship allegations by Elon Musk-owned microblogging site X on Tuesday, the Centre reiterated that it had not issued any order on July 3 to block the accounts of news agency Reuters.
"The moment Reuters and ReutersWorld were blocked on X platform in India, immediately the government wrote to ‘X' to unblock them," a spokesperson of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology said in a statement. "The government continuously engaged and vigorously pursued with ‘X' from the late night of 5th July 2025."
The spokesperson 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.
This was after X alleged press censorship in India as it claimed that the government ordered a ban on over 2,300 social media accounts, including the ones operated by Reuters.
"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," X posted on Tuesday via its 'Global Government Affairs' account.
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…
July 8, 2025The microblogging site 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 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.
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