New Delhi:
The Social Media Platform X said on Tuesday that it was “deeply worried” after the Indian government ordered to block more than 2,000 accounts last week, including two Reuters news agency.
Many of the excluded accounts were restored within a few hours and New Delhi denied any role in the cease.
India, the largest democracy in the world, is regularly ranked among the top five countries for the number of demands by a government to abolish the content of social media.
“On July 3, 2025, the Indian government ordered X to exclude 2,355 accounts in India, including international news agencies such as @reuters and @reutersworld,” X’s global government affairs team said in a statement shared on the platform.
The statement added that the India Ministry of Electronics had “requested immediate action – within an hour – without justifying and demanding the accounts to remain blocked” until the next notice.
A representative of the Indian Ministry denied that such an order was issued, saying that there was no “intention of preventing any prominent international news channel”.
“The moment Reuters and Reuters World were blocked on the X platform in India, the government immediately wrote on” X “to unblock them,” the spokesman told Ani news agency.
The accounts were off -connection late on Saturday, but had continued to operate until Sunday.
“Non -compliance is risking criminal responsibility,” said X, the platform that was formerly known as Twitter and belonged to the richest man in the world Elon Musk.
“After a public outcry, the government asked X to unblock @reuters and @reutersworld,” he added.
“We are deeply concerned about the ongoing press censorship in India because of these exclusion commands.”
Rights groups say that freedom of expression and press freedom are threatened in India, as Hindu Prime Minister Narendra Modi assumed duties in 2014.
New Delhi regularly imposes an internet blanket during periods of turmoil.
In April, India began a sweeping repression of social media, banning more than twelve Pakistani YouTube Pakistani channels for alleged “provocative” content after attacking Kashmir. Many of them have been restored.
New Delhi has also imposed internet internet holidays in the northeast state of Manipur since 2023 after ethnic violence.
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