Reuters’ X account blocked in India ‘due to legal demand’, govt denies raising any request

On Sunday (July 6), users pointed out that international news agency Reuters’ X account had been blocked in India. When users tried accessing the account, a notice popped up, saying the account had been withheld “in response to a legal demand”. However, the Indian government has denied raising any new request in this regard and sought an explanation from the Elon Musk-owned social media platform.

A government spokesperson clarified in a statement Sunday morning: “There is no requirement from the Government of India to withhold Reuters, and we are continuously working with X to resolve the problem.”

Earlier, sources in the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology told Network 18 that it seems to be a confusion or a technical glitch from the X side.

“The government did not ask X to block Reuters. Have asked X why they have done it. So many other handles of Reuters are still available in India, which shows that the government wants Reuters in India. It seems like a technical issue or confusion from the X side,” they said.

Along with Reuters, the Reuters World account is also inaccessible to users in India.

Confusion

According to sources quoted in media reports, X seems to have acted now on a request made by the Indian government during Operation Sindoor in the month of May.

The Reuters’ account was not blocked then, as requested by New Delhi. However, it seems, the X officials did act on that request now.

“An order was issued on May 7 (during
Operation Sindoor) but it was not enforced. X seems to have enforced that order now which is a mistake on their part. Government has reached out to X for resolving it at the earliest,” an official source said.

Notably, other accounts of Reuters, such as Reuters Tech News, Reuters Fact Check, Reuters Asia, and Reuters China, are still accessible in India.

This comes days after the Indian government faced
criticism online for unblocking several Pakistani-origin social media handles, which were blocked during the four-day standoff with Pakistan. However, the government had to reinstate the ban within 24 hours. It’s likely that the government may have now sent a new request to X to block all the handles which were targeted in the original order issued in May, thus taking down Reuters too.