Elon Musk-owned social media platform X has refuted the government over its blocking accounts of Reuters, saying it received blocking orders for more than 2,000 accounts in India, including those linked to the news agency on July 3. However, the government, in an official statement, doubled down on its earlier stance that it has not sent any such order on the specified date.
In a post via its Global Government Affairs handle on Tuesday, X said that on July 3, the Indian government ordered X to block 2,355 accounts in India, including international news outlets like Reuters under Section 69A of the Information Technology 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,” X said. “After public outcry, the government requested X to unblock @Reuters and @ReutersWorld.”
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…
— Global Government Affairs (@GlobalAffairs) July 8, 2025
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“.
X’s statement directly contradicted an official government statement issued on 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.”
X said: “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.”
On Saturday night, X blocked the handles of Reuters and Reuters World, with a message displayed on their accounts stating they had been withheld in India “in response to a legal demand”.
Officials in the ministry had earlier said that the government had sent blocking orders to X related to some posts made by the news agency during Operation Sindoor in early May, but the platform, at the time, had not taken any action on the posts.
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During Operation Sindoor, the Indian government had directed social media platforms like X to block several pieces of content and accounts that it felt were spreading deliberate misinformation and posting information that could subvert and undermine the Armed Forces’ ongoing operations at the time. While it had blocked a range of accounts it believed were linked to Pakistan and China, it had also directed blocking the X accounts of news platforms BBC Urdu and Outlook India, which was later revoked.
Earlier, in a statement on May 9, X had said that it received executive orders from the Indian government asking for over 8,000 accounts to be blocked, including those belonging to “international news organisations and prominent X users”. The social media platform said that falling foul of the executive orders could subject it to potential penalties, including significant fines and imprisonment of its local employees.
The Indian Express had reported that following a flurry of what it called “misinformation” on social media platforms related to Operation Sindoor, a small team at the IT Ministry — which was set up last year during the Lok Sabha polls to flag and take down election-related misinformation on social media platforms — received reinforcement of personnel and was asked to step up monitoring and flag misleading content related to the conflict to be taken down. The monitoring happened round-the-clock, with people working across shifts.
