IT Ministry Accuses X Of Exploiting Technicalities To Delay Unblocking Process After 'Press Censorship' Post
Shortly after Elon Musk-owned X announced it had been directed by the Indian government to block over 2,300 accounts, including the official handles of global news agency Reuters, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology rejected the claim, accusing X of unnecessarily exploiting technicalities in the URL unblocking process.
In a statement, an IT Ministry spokesperson said: "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. When Reuters and Reuters World were blocked on X's platform in India, the government immediately wrote to X to unblock them."
The Ministry alleged, "The Government continuously engaged with and vigorously pursued the matter with X from late on 5th July 2025. X has unnecessarily exploited technicalities in the process and failed to unblock the URLs."
"However, after extensive follow-up on an hourly basis, X finally unblocked Reuters and other URLs after 9 pm on 6th July 2025. They took more than 21 hours to unblock Reuters," the IT Ministry added.
The Ministry's response came after X's Global Government Affairs team expressed concerns about "ongoing press censorship" in India.
A post from X's Global Government Affairs handle stated: "On 3rd July 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. 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," the post further added.
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