Govt refutes X’s claims of Reuters accounts blocking order

The government on Tuesday refuted X’s claims that it had ordered the social media platform to block the accounts of the news agency Reuters, as well as the concerns raised by the Elon Musk-owned platform about press censorship in India.

This comes after X’s Global Government Affairs handle claimed that it was ordered by the Indian government to block 2,355 accounts, including those of international news agencies like Reuters and ReutersWorld, under Section 69A of the IT Act—failing which it would face criminal liability. X further alleged that the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) had demanded compliance within one hour, without justification.

In a formal response, the official spokesperson of MeitY clarified, “The Government has not issued any fresh blocking order on July 3, 2025, and has no intention to block any prominent international news channels, including Reuters and ReutersWorld.”

The government stated that as soon as it became aware that Reuters and ReutersWorld had been blocked on the X platform in India, it immediately wrote to X to reverse the action. MeitY claims it began engaging with the platform from the late night of July 5, pursuing the matter “vigorously and on an hourly basis.”

The government also alleged that X exploited procedural technicalities and delayed the unblocking of Reuters accounts, finally restoring them only after 9 PM on July 6, over 21 hours after initial government intervention.

The episode underscores growing tensions between global tech platforms and the Indian government over content regulation and transparency in the enforcement of takedown orders. While X claims it is exploring legal options against what it views as censorship, Indian authorities maintain that no such order was issued in this instance and that X’s public statements misrepresented the sequence of events.

Earlier, X was embroiled in a controversy after Tushar Mehta, the Solicitor General of India, strongly criticised the company and called its counsel’s remarks “arrogant.” Mehta reportedly defended the government’s authority to issue content takedown orders and rejected the company’s claim that lower-level officials were misusing their powers, as reported by Reuters.

“I take objection to this, they are officers and not Tom, Dick and Harry. They are statutory functionaries, empowered to take action. International bodies should not have this arrogance,” he said. Mehta was representing the government in a hearing at the Karnataka High Court on a writ petition filed by X.

Mehta’s response came after senior advocate K.G. Raghavan, appearing for X, made a controversial remark on the Indian government. “This is the danger, My Lord, that is done now, if every Tom, Dick, and Harry officer is authorised,” said Raghavan.