India fires back at X after Reuters account is blocked

India has once more addressed the allegations that it mandated the blocking of Reuters accounts on social media X, accusing the platform of distorting facts and postponing the unblocking of the news agency’s accounts, despite ongoing inquiries from the Indian government.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) released a statement on Tuesday, July 8, indicating that the Indian government contacted X “as soon as Reuters and Reuters World” accounts were disabled in India. It stated that India “kept engaging and actively sought with X” about the unblocking of the accounts.

“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 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,” the ministry said.

It further accused Elon Musk’s X of “exploiting technicalities” around the unblocking process and took more than 21 hours to give access to the social media handles.

“‘X’ has unnecessarily exploited technicalities involved around the process and didn’t unblock the URLs. However, after 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 ministry said.

“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 Technology demanded immediate action- within one hour- without providing justification, and required the accounts to remain blocked until further notice,” X’s Global Government Affairs’ handle said in a post.

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.”