The Indian government on Tuesday strongly rejected microblogging platform X’s claim that the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology issued an order on July 3 for blocking 2,355 accounts, including international news agency Reuters and Reuters World. The ministry further said that it told X to unblock the news agency’s handles in India the moment it came to know they were blocked.
The social media giant owned by Elon Musk, however, “unnecessarily exploited technicalities involved around the process and didn’t unblock the URLs,” said a MeitY spokesperson.
“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,” the spokesperson said.
“The government continuously engaged and vigorously pursued ‘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,” the spokesperson added.
X criticised govt, alleged ‘press sensorship’
Earlier in the day, X criticised the government over what it called “press censorship”, following the blocking of the accounts of Reuters in India. The government earlier too denied any role in the news agency’s social media account going offline in India.
X, however, said the government on July 3 ordered it to block 2,355 accounts, including Reuters, “within one hour without providing justification”. X said they had no choice but to obey the order as they could be penalised if they didn’t. The company even asked those whose accounts have been blocked to look for a remedy from courts.
“On July 3, 2025, the Indian government ordered X to block 2,355 accounts in India, including international news outlets like Reuters and Reuters World, under Section 69A of the IT Act. Non-compliance risked criminal liability,” X’s Global Government Affairs team said in a post.
“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. After public outcry, the government requested X to unblock Reuters and Reuters World,” it 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,” said the company earlier known as Twitter before Elon Musk bought it.
X has frequently criticised the government over orders on blocking accounts. In March, the social media giant sued the Centre, accusing it of misusing information technology laws to create an “unlawful blocking regime”.
Under Section 79(3)(b), an IT intermediary [such as X] loses immunity from liability if it does not “expeditiously remove or disable access” to material flagged by a government agency as linked to an unlawful act. X’s petition alleged the use of Section 79(3)(b) circumvented Section 69A, which empowered the government to issue directions to block public access to information, but added safeguards.
