Indian Govt Denied Asking X To Block Reuters Account

The Centre on Sunday denied making any legal requests to microblogging site X to ban the international news agency Reuters's handle in India. The clarification comes hours after Reuters's X handle in India showed that it had been blocked "in response to a legal demand".

The blockade of the X account in India “seems like a technical issue or confusion from the X side", the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology said. “The government did not ask X to block Reuters. Have asked X why they have done it. So many other handles of Reuters are still available in India, which shows that the government wants Reuters in India. It seems like a technical issue or confusion from the X side," they said.

An official spokesperson said that the Government of India is working with the X to resolve the problem. “There is no requirement from the Government of India to withhold the Reuters handle. We are continuously working with X to resolve the problem," the spokesperson said.

This comes after the Reuters X account was seen “withheld" in India with a message stating “@Reuters has been withheld in response to a legal demand". The Reuters World account was also found withheld in India with a similar message popping up on the screen. However, the other X handles were accessible in the country, including Reuters China, Reuters Asia, Reuters Science News, and Reuters Business.

On 2 more media handles

The Government of India also clarified that it was working with X to resolve the issue after two more foreign media handles were blocked in the country on X, the spokesperson said. This comes moments after the X accounts of Chinese mouthpiece Global Times News and Turkish TRT World were “withheld", in what X showed was “in response to a legal demand".