A spokesperson from India’s Press Information Bureau told Reuters that there is no order from any Indian government agency to block the Reuters account on X (formerly Twitter). The spokesperson added, “We are working with X to fix the issue.”
Reuters said it doesn’t know which content caused the issue, who complained, or why the removal was requested.
X (formerly Twitter) did not respond when asked for a comment. Reuters said in a statement: “We are working with X to get the Reuters account back in India as soon as possible.”
Another Reuters account called Reuters World, has also been blocked in India.
The main Reuters account, which has over 25 million followers, was blocked in India on Saturday night. Users in India saw a message saying, “@Reuters has been withheld in India due to a legal request.”
X had earlier emailed Reuters on May 16, saying:
“We inform users if we receive a legal request from authorities (like police or government agencies) to remove content. To follow India’s laws, we have blocked your account in India under the Information Technology Act, 2000. The content is still visible outside India.”
It is not clear whether this May 16 email is linked to the current block of the account.
The email did not say who made the request or what content they wanted removed. It did say that Reuters could contact the secretary of India’s Information and Broadcasting Ministry for help.
That official, Sanjay Jaju, did not respond to questions.
India’s Information Technology Act of 2000 allows government officials to ask social media platforms to remove posts or accounts that are seen as dangerous to national security or public order.
X and the Indian government have often disagreed in the past about content removal. In March, X even sued the Indian government, saying a new government website gave too much power to officials to remove content.
That legal case is still going on. The Indian government says X wrongly called the website a “censorship portal” and says the site is only used to warn tech companies about harmful content.
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