‘Unnecessarily exploited technicalities’: Govt hits back at X over 'press censorship' charge

The Centre on Thursday denied issuing any new blocking orders against international news outlets, including Reuters and ReutersWorld, after temporarily blocking their accounts on the social media platform X.

In an official statement, the government clarified that no fresh blocking directive was issued on July 3, 2025, and emphasised that it has “no intention to block any prominent international news channels.”

Official Spokesperson, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology says, "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. The moment…

— ANI (@ANI) July 8, 2025

“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 X platform in India, immediately the government wrote to ‘X’ to unblock them,” Official Spokesperson, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, said.

The government said it continuously engaged and vigorously pursued with ‘X’ from the late night of July 5.

“X has un-necessarily exploited technicalities involved around the process and didn’t unblock the URLs. However, after lot of follow up on 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 added.

Impact Shorts

More Shorts

'New dawn': PM Modi meets Manipur violence victims in first visit since 2023 unrest

CP Radhakrishnan takes oath as Vice President of India

The government statement came after Elon Musk-owned social media platform X alleged press censorship in India, claiming to have received a legal order from the government on July 3 to block over 2,300 accounts, including those of Reuters and ReutersWorld.

According to the X’s Global Government Affairs handle, on July 3, the Indian government ordered X to block 2,355 accounts in India, including international news outlets such as Reuters and ReutersWorld, under Section 69A of the IT Act (power to issue directions for blocking for public access of any information through any computer resource).

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…

— Global Government Affairs (@GlobalAffairs) July 8, 2025

“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,” the social media platform said.

“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,” said the social media platform.

X has frequently criticised the government over orders on blocking accounts. In March, the social media giant sued the Centre, accusing it of misusing information technology laws to create an “unlawful blocking regime”.

With inputs from agencies