Latest news with #ReutersWorld
The Hindu
3 days ago
- Politics
- The Hindu
Reuters' X account block: what just happened?
Here's the gist: First, Reuters' X account was blocked. Then, it got unblocked. X says it withheld the account in response to a legal demand from the Indian government. The Indian government denied the claim. And then X jumps in, saying India actually ordered a ban on over 2,300 accounts, including Reuters. Let's dig into the details. On July 5th, international news agency Reuters had its X accounts @Reuters and @ReutersWorld, blocked in India. A message on X said the accounts were withheld 'in response to a legal demand.' And it wasn't just Reuters. The X accounts of Chinese newspaper Global Times and Turkish public broadcaster TRT World were also withheld in India. When questions started surfacing, a spokesperson from Press Information Bureau told Reuters that no Indian agency had asked for their account to be withheld and added that officials were working with X to resolve the problem. And just 24 hours later, the accounts were restored. Meanwhile, X In a post on its Global Government Affairs handle, stated: 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. We are deeply concerned about ongoing press censorship in India due to these blocking orders. What is the Act all about? The Section 69A of the IT Act empowers the government to restrict access to any content in the interest of sovereignty and integrity of the country, security of the state, friendly relations with foreign states or for public order. According to a PTI report, an unnamed government source said the demand to block Reuters' X account came during Operation Sindoor, and X must have acted on it only now. Credit: Camera: Johan Sathya Das, Kailas Krishna Producer: Athira Madhav
The Star
4 days ago
- Business
- The Star
X blasts India 'censorship' order on thousands of accounts
X said it was 'exploring all legal options available' but added that it was 'restricted by Indian law in its ability to bring legal challenges'. — Reuters NEW DELHI: Social media platform X said Tuesday it was "deeply concerned" after the Indian government ordered it last week to block more than 2,000 accounts, including two belonging to the Reuters news agency. Many of the blocked accounts were restored within hours, and New Delhi denied any role in the takedown. India, the world's biggest democracy, regularly ranks among the top five countries for the number of requests made by a government to remove social media content. "On July 3, 2025, the Indian government ordered X to block 2,355 accounts in India, including international news outlets like @Reuters and @ReutersWorld," X's Global Government Affairs team said in a statement shared on the platform. The statement added that India's Ministry of Electronics had "demanded immediate action – within one hour – without providing justification, and required the accounts to remain blocked" until further notice. An Indian ministry spokesperson denied such an order was issued, saying there was "no intention to block any prominent international news channel". "The moment Reuters and Reuters World were blocked on X platform in India, immediately the government wrote to 'X' to unblock them," the spokesperson told news agency ANI. The accounts were taken offline late on Saturday, but had resumed operating by Sunday. "Non-compliance risked criminal liability," said X, the platform formerly known as Twitter and owned by the world's richest person Elon Musk. "After public outcry, the government requested X to unblock @Reuters and @ReutersWorld," it added. "We are deeply concerned about ongoing press censorship in India due to these blocking orders." Rights groups say freedom of expression and press freedom have been under threat in India since Prime Minister Narendra Modi took office in 2014. New Delhi regularly imposes blanket Internet shutdowns during periods of unrest. In April, India launched a sweeping crackdown on social media, banning more than a dozen Pakistani YouTube channels for allegedly spreading "provocative" content following an attack in Kashmir. Many of those have been restored. New Delhi has also imposed intermittent Internet outages in the northeastern state of Manipur since 2023 in the wake of ethnic violence. New Delhi has justified Internet and social media bans as ways to curb disinformation in a country where hundreds of millions of people have access to some of the cheapest mobile Internet rates in the world. X said it was "exploring all legal options available" but added that it was "restricted by Indian law in its ability to bring legal challenges". "We urge affected users to pursue legal remedies through the courts," it added. – AFP
The Print
4 days ago
- Business
- The Print
Govt denies making any fresh demand for blockage of global wire agency's X account
'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 spokesperson of the Ministry of Electronics and IT (Meity) said. The statement came as the Elon Musk-owned platform asserted that the government of India, on July 3, sought the blocking of over 2,300 X handles in India. The list, it claimed, included the handle Reuters in India. New Delhi, Jul 8 (PTI) The government on Tuesday said it has not made any fresh requests to block access to certain X accounts in the country and that it had proactively got blockage of a prominent international wire agency lifted. On Saturday night, Reuters' X account, @Reuters, became inaccessible in India due to a 'legal demand' made by the government, the micro-blogging website had said. While the government was quick to write to X asking for the reasons for the blockage and sought restoration of access to the account, sources indicated that the embargo may have been due to a government request made for blocking certain accounts during Operation Sindoor in May. However, X had not blocked Reuters' account then. With those circumstances not remaining relevant, the Indian government was not seeking any new blockage. The spokesperson on Tuesday said that the government continuously engaged and vigorously pursued X from the late night of July 5, 2025. ''X' has unnecessarily exploited technicalities involved around the process and didn't unblock the URLs. However, after a lot of follow up on an hourly basis, X has finally unblocked Reuters and other URLs after 9 pm on 6th July 2025. They took more than 21 hours to unblock Reuters,' the spokesperson said. The response came as X in a post on its official handle on Tuesday said access to Reuters in India was blocked following an official order issued on July 3. '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 Global Affairs account of X said. It went on to claim that the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology – the nodal ministry which executes requests for blockage on behalf of any arm of the government – had on July 3 demanded immediate action without providing any reason, and required the accounts to remain blocked until further notice. '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,' X said. The government spokesperson refuted X's assertions. Reuters' X account was withheld in India for a few hours but restored later on Sunday after the government intervened to say it had not sought the blocking of the handle. The official accounts of Chinese media organisation Global Times and Turkish media house TRT World on X were also blocked again on the same day citing a legal demand but the government spokesperson said that there was no need to block even those accounts then. Some of the major media house accounts that were blocked during Operation Sindoor, including Chinese Xinhua News, continued to be accessible without any disruption. PTI PRS ANZ CS PRS SHW This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.
Express Tribune
4 days ago
- Business
- Express Tribune
X blasts India 'censorship' order
Logo of X platform with 3D printed statue of Elon Musk. PHOTO: REUTERS Social media platform X said Tuesday it was "deeply concerned" after the Indian government ordered it last week to block more than 2,000 accounts, including two belonging to the Reuters news agency. Many of the blocked accounts were restored within hours, and New Delhi denied any role in the takedown. India, the world's biggest democracy, regularly ranks among the top five countries for the number of requests made by a government to remove social media content. "On July 3, 2025, the Indian government ordered X to block 2,355 accounts in India, including international news outlets like @Reuters and @ReutersWorld," X's Global Government Affairs team said in a statement shared on the platform. The statement added that India's Ministry of Electronics had "demanded immediate action — within one hour — without providing justification, and required the accounts to remain blocked" until further notice. An Indian ministry spokesperson denied such an order was issued, saying there was "no intention to block any prominent international news channel". "The moment Reuters and Reuters World were blocked on X platform in India, immediately the government wrote to 'X' to unblock them," the spokesperson told news agency ANI. The accounts were taken offline late on Saturday, but had resumed operating by Sunday. "Non-compliance risked criminal liability," said X, the platform formerly known as Twitter and owned by the world's richest person Elon Musk. "After public outcry, the government requested X to unblock @Reuters and @ReutersWorld," it added. "We are deeply concerned about ongoing press censorship in India due to these blocking orders." Rights groups say freedom of expression and press freedom have been under threat in India since Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi took office in 2014. New Delhi regularly imposes blanket internet shutdowns during periods of unrest. In April, India launched a sweeping crackdown on social media, banning more than a dozen Pakistani YouTube channels for allegedly spreading "provocative" content following an attack in Kashmir. Many of those have been restored. New Delhi has also imposed intermittent internet outages in the northeastern state of Manipur since 2023 in the wake of ethnic violence.
Business Recorder
4 days ago
- Business
- Business Recorder
X blasts India ‘censorship' order on thousands of accounts
NEW DELHI: Social media platform X said Tuesday it was 'deeply concerned' after the Indian government ordered it last week to block 2,355 accounts, including two Reuters news agency accounts. Many of the blocked accounts were restored hours later, with New Delhi specifically denying its role in the takedown. India, the world's biggest democracy, regularly ranks among the top five countries for the number of requests made by a government to remove social media content. 'On July 3, 2025, the Indian government ordered X to block 2,355 accounts in India, including international news outlets like @Reuters and @ReutersWorld,' X's Global Government Affairs team said in a statement, shared on its platform. It said that India's Ministry of Electronics 'demanded immediate action — within one hour — without providing justification, and required the accounts to remain blocked' until further notice. The accounts were taken offline late on Saturday, but had resumed operations by Sunday. 'Non-compliance risked criminal liability,' said X, the platform owned by Tesla boss Elon Musk and formerly known as Twitter. 'After public outcry, the government requested X to unblock @Reuters and @ReutersWorld,' it added. 'We are deeply concerned about ongoing press censorship in India due to these blocking orders.' Rights groups say freedom of expression and free press is under threat in India since Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi took office in 2014. New Delhi has regularly imposed blanket internet shutdowns during periods of unrest. India in April launched a sweeping crackdown on social media, banning more than a dozen Pakistani YouTube channels for allegedly spreading 'provocative' content following an attack in Kashmir. Many of those of have been restored. New Delhi has also imposed intermittent internet outages in the northeastern state of Manipur since 2023 in the wake of ethnic violence.
