On Saturday evening, the main Reuters news account and the Reuters World account became inaccessible to X users in India. Access was restored on Sunday. The accounts were blocked in response to a legal demand.
Indian users attempting to view the @Reuters account, which has 25 million followers, saw a message stating that the account “has been withheld in IN (India) in response to a legal demand.”
An Indian government spokesperson told TechCrunch that “There is no requirement from the Government of India to withhold Reuters handle. We are continuously working with X to resolve the problem.”
A Reuters spokesperson stated that the news agency is “working with X to resolve this matter.” In May, Reuters’ social media team received a notification from X stating that the company was withholding content at the Indian government’s request. The notification did not specify which agency made the request or which content was targeted.
X, formerly known as Twitter, sued the Indian government in March, claiming that a new website allows “unrestrained censorship of information in India” by unlawfully enabling “countless” public officials to take down content or block accounts. The government responded that the website only allowed it to notify companies about harmful online content.
Last year, X engaged in a dispute with Brazil’s Supreme Court, which resulted in the service being shut down, then banned for over a month.
