New Delhi: The Centre on Tuesday rejected claims made by Elon Musk-owned X that it had directed the social media platform to block 2,355 accounts in India—including global news agency Reuters—on July 3.
According to the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), no such fresh blocking order or request was issued to X. In fact, the government maintained that it actively engaged with the platform to reverse the block on Reuters after the account was withheld earlier this month. Following multiple follow-ups, X restored access to Reuters and other URLs on July 6.
A MeitY spokesperson 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 Reuters World. The moment Reuters and Reuters World were blocked on the X platform in India, immediately the government wrote to ‘X’ to unblock them."
Officials said an order had been issued earlier on May 7 during Operation Sindoor, but it was not intended for enforcement. That directive was part of a series of post-crackdown takedown requests related to national security. The government believes X mistakenly enforced this outdated order and had reached out to the company to rectify the issue.
The clarification came in response to a statement from X’s Global Government Affairs handle, which claimed that on July 3, 2025, the Indian government directed the platform to block 2,355 accounts—including Reuters and ReutersWorld—under Section 69A of the 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," the social media platform claimed.
X added that it later received a request from the government to unblock Reuters and ReutersWorld following “public outcry.”
"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 platform added.
Users attempting to access Reuters’ account had been shown a message stating that the handle was withheld “in response to a legal demand”.
Despite the temporary block on Reuters' main and Reuters World handles, related accounts such as Reuters Tech News, Reuters Fact Check, Reuters Asia, and Reuters China remained accessible in India.
Reuters stated that X had earlier informed them about a legal request from an authorised entity to remove content, but it could not determine what specific content the demand referenced.
(with IANS inputs)