X Corp calls government’s bluff, voices concern about censorship in India

“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. After public outcry, the government requested X to unblock @Reuters and @ReutersWorld,” X Corporation's Global Government Affairs cell posted on the social media platform.

“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,” the post went on to advice.

It is embarrassing for the country when its government gets globally called out for lying, posted Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera. Why lie if the government had sought the blockage of the account, he wondered.

However, the government on Tuesday continued to state that it has not made any fresh requests to block access to certain X accounts in the country and that it had proactively got the Reuters blockage lifted.

"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 the X platform in India, immediately the government wrote to X to unblock them," an official MEITy spokesperson said.

The government was possibly forced to backtrack following an international outcry. Media reports in India quoted “a government spokesperson” as saying there was no legal requirement made by it to withhold the account and that it was working with X to resolve the issue.

These sources were quoted in the media as saying a demand for blocking of Reuters' X account alongside several hundreds of other accounts was made during Operation Sindoor in May. While several accounts were blocked from access in India, the Reuters handle wasn't, Indian media reports claimed last week.

“Elon Musk-owned X seems to have now acted on that request and blocked Reuters' X handle in India. And since the issue isn't relevant now, the government has asked X to explain the blocking and lift the embargo,” these sources said. They passed the blame on to X and claimed, "An order was issued on 7 May (during Operation Sindoor) but it was not enforced. X seems to have enforced that order now which is a mistake on their part.”

This is not the first time that X Corp (formerly Twitter), owned by American tech billionaire Elon Musk, has voiced concern about censorship in India. It earlier informed the Delhi High Court that India's Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) was demanding that X onboard the Sahyog portal created by it for all intermediaries and official agencies responsible for blocking content on the internet in India. X Corp had argued that it had its own portal to take care of ‘legal demands’ for taking down objectionable content with safeguards provided by the law.

X Corp also filed a writ petition against the Union of India in the High Court of Karnataka in March, challenging the constitutionality of the Sahyog portal. The petition prayed for a declaration from the court that Section 79(3)(b) of the IT Act does not empower the government to block content by appointing authorised officers. It also sought quashing of takedown notices issued by the ministries of home affairs, defence, finance and railways.

Senior advocate K.G. Raghavan appeared for X Corp and solicitor-general Tushar Mehta appeared for the Union on 1 July. Raghavan argued that the Sahyog portal was being used to issue disproportionate takedown notices. Referring to a social media post of a woman driving on railway tracks in Telangana, he argued that this was news and not ‘unlawful’ content, and yet the Government of India had issued a takedown notice against it. X Corp argued that the portal created a parallel system and asked, "What if every Tom, Dick and Harry officer sends notices?"

The solicitor-general and the court objected to government officers being referred to disparagingly as ‘Tom, Dick and Harry’, though what was meant was possibly a large number of bureaucrats in both the Central and state governments being authorised to demand takedown of content, causing confusion. The misunderstanding over blocking the Reuters account also appears to have been caused by this process.

With agency inputs