Reuters’ primary news account, along with its global “Reuters World” account, have become inaccessible to users in India on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, since Saturday evening.
When attempting to access Reuters’ accounts, including the main handle followed by some 25 million users, Indian visitors are met with a message indicating the account “has been withheld in IN (India) in response to a legal demand.”
Interestingly, an Indian government spokesperson has stated that no agency within the government has made any request to block these accounts. Reuters’ representatives noted they are currently cooperating with X to understand and resolve the situation. They also mentioned that in May, Reuters had previously received a notification from X indicating certain content was being withheld at the government’s request, though the notice did not clarify which agency initiated the demand or which specific content was involved.
X, now integrated with Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence venture xAI, has experienced tense interactions with the Indian government in the past over similar issues. The platform has openly resisted government directives to block various accounts and posts. Earlier this spring, X even launched a lawsuit against the Indian government alleging that a newly launched official website allowed excessive and unsupervised censorship by providing “countless” government officials the power to remove content freely or suspend user accounts. In response, the government asserted that the site is designed solely to facilitate communication about removing harmful digital content.
This incident mirrors similar disputes for X in other countries. Last year, the platform was involved in a prolonged clash with Brazil’s Supreme Court, leading to operations being temporarily suspended in Brazil for over a month after defying judicial orders.
