Govt Steps In After Reuters’ X Account Blocked In India, Access Restored

Reuters' X account was briefly blocked in India due to an old legal request. The account was restored after the government clarified it had not requested the action and contacted X.

Reuters’ X Account Unblocked in India After Govt. Intervention

Source : X/@Reuters

New Delhi, Jul 6 (PTI) International news agency Reuters' X account was withheld in India for a few hours but restored later on Sunday after the government intervened to say it had not sought the blocking of the handle.

Reuters' X account was blocked from being accessed in India overnight, leading to speculations.

The government asked the Elon Musk-owned platform for an explanation and said that it had not sought such a move. X restored access to the account shortly after.

A government official said that "all blocked channels on X have been opened now".

On random check, it was found that Chinese media organisation GlobalTimes and Turkish media house TRT World were also accessible after being blocked again by X for users in India.

The notice displayed on X till Sunday evening showed that Reuters' X account had been withheld in India "in response to a legal demand".

However, a government spokesperson said no legal requirement was made to withhold the account.

Earlier in the day, sources said a demand for blocking the account alongside several hundreds of other accounts was made during Operation Sindoor in May. While many of them were blocked, the Reuters handle wasn't.

X seems to have now acted on that request and blocked Reuters' handle in India. And since the issue isn't relevant now, the government has asked X to explain the blocking and lift the embargo, they said.

The official accounts of Chinese media organisation Global Times and Turkish media house TRT World on X were also blocked again citing a legal demand, which the government said was not required now.

"There is no requirement from the government of India to withhold the Global Times News/trtworld handle. We are continuously working with X to resolve the problem," the spokesperson had said.

Some of the major media house accounts that were blocked during Operation Sindoor, including Chinese Xinhua News, continued to be accessible without any disruption.

"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. The government reached out to X to resolve it," an official source said.

An e-mail sent to Reuters seeking comments did not elicit a response.

While Reuters' affiliated X handles such as Reuters Tech News, Reuters Fact Check, Reuters Asia, and Reuters China were accessible in India, both official X accounts of the global news agency as well as Reuters World handles were inaccessible.

X users attempting to access the main account could see a message that read: "Account withheld. @ Reuters has been withheld in IN in response to a legal demand." On its help centre page, X explains such messages "about country withheld content" means X was compelled to withhold the entire account specified or posted in response to a valid legal demand, such as a court order or local laws.

 

(This report has been published as part of the auto-generated syndicate wire feed. Apart from the headline, no editing has been done in the copy by ABP Live.)